


One Shots

by VideoPlay5178



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-05-15 09:58:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 29
Words: 214,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5781547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VideoPlay5178/pseuds/VideoPlay5178
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray's dreams always came true and whatever force that gave them to him made him change the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Inevitable

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collection of one-shots that I've been wanting to write. They're too short to stand on their own, but I wanted to write them anyway. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!

            The bar was crowded, people wobbled around, laughing loudly and swearing at each other. Ray sat close to Ryan, waiting for Geoff to be drunk enough for them to go home. As he looked around, everything about the world around him felt instantly familiar and his chest began to burn. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

            He was going to panic _again_. Who was going to die? What was going to happen? Tears slipped down his face as he pressed his lips together to keep from hyperventilating.

            He couldn’t make out the words spoken to him, but he knew the voice. Ryan was frowning worriedly at him, gently pushing him from the booth they were sitting in. He knew the signs, he had seen this enough times.

            Ray couldn’t remember when they got into the bathroom, they just suddenly where. His face was tight with tears and they had crammed themselves into a stall. Ryan loomed a bit above him, gently rubbing his arms and counting slowly.

            He couldn’t remember Ryan calming him down. He suddenly was much calmer. Very slowly, he smiled up at Ryan, but before he could tell him he was okay, Ryan’s hands were gone and he was leaning back. The panic almost settled back in and his chest felt empty.

            “I think we should take a break.” Ryan said slowly, studying Ray’s face. “Just for a little bit. I can’t-“

           

* * *

 

            Ray jerked awake, feeling as though he had fallen back into his body. Tears were falling from his eyes as he panted, staring at the ceiling. He shook as he sat up slowly. “No, no. No. Please.” He gasped out, staring at his hands resting on the blanket draped over his legs.

            Beside him, a warm body shifted and groaned, but didn’t wake up. Ray looked over at the blond hair poking out from under the covers. Even breaths lifted the blanket.

            Clenching his jaw, Ray felt tears burn his eyes as he slipped from the bed. He wobbled on his feet, eyes wide and mind fuzzy. He stumbled into the bathroom, quietly shutting the door and leaning back against the dark wood.

            He slid to the cold tile, legs sprawled out in front of him, hands curled in the fabric of his sweat pants. His chest heaved and tears silently rolled down his cheeks. Since he was born, he could remember every one of his dreams. He remembered as far back as when he was an infant, dreaming of his parents fighting over his crib. When he was ten, he dreamed of their divorce and hid himself in his closet when the panic began in real life. His dreams always came true.

            Ray nearly choked on a sob, scratching his legs as he tightened his grip on his pants. He was going to lose Ryan. Take a break, what a nice way to put it. Ray laughed through another sob. Of course Ryan would be nice about it, the idiot couldn’t hurt a fly.

            Tears dripped from his eyes, pattering onto the tile and soaking his pants. Of course this had happened before. He always lost people. They didn’t need his shit. They didn’t need a broken man.

            Ray took a shaky breath and let his pants go, reaching up and rubbing his eyes. He could do this. He had before. Waiting until his nose drained and his eyes were no longer red, he went back into the bedroom and slipped back under the covers.

            Staring at the ceiling, he felt Ryan’s warmth radiate beside him. He couldn’t stop his smile when Ryan rolled over, throwing his arm around Ray’s waist in his sleep. He subconsciously held him tighter, always the cuddlier of the two of them.

            Ray felt sobs build in his throat and had to bite his lip to keep from crumbling. His nose stuffed and turned red as he squeezed his eyes shut. He took deep breaths until the lump in his throat was pushed back down.

            He opened his eyes when a soft kiss was placed against his temple. Ryan smiled down at him, studying his face and taking in the smile Ray couldn’t help. “Morning my rose.” Ryan sighed, kissing Ray’s temple again.

            He probably wouldn’t be able to look at roses for a while. That sucked. He liked roses. “Morning Rye.” Ray said, letting himself press into Ryan. This, wasn't a good idea, but he’d enjoy what love he had left to be given.

            Ryan squeezed him lightly before pulling away. The rush of cold emptiness had Ray back in his dream for a moment and he had to pretend to whine about getting up to collect himself. He breathed hard against the pillow as he pressed his face into the soft fabric. Blinking away tears, eye lashes brushing against the pillow, he forced a smile and got up.

            The weekend had always seemed like a heaven sent. Neither of them had to work or go out. They could just spend their time together. The dream nagged at Ray all day, as they normally did, but he enjoyed the day regardless.

            Around lunch, Ryan’s phone rang and he picked up as he made their meal. “Hey Geoff.” Ryan said and Ray froze. “A bar? Really?”

            Ray slowly turned from the fridge and stared at Ryan’s back. Closing his eyes as he took a deep breath, he looked back at the fridge and opened his eyes. He could change the future now, but a horrible, familiar pain in his chest told him this was inevitable. He wondered if he should gather up Ryan’s things now or later.

            “Alright, alright. Hold on.” Ryan snorted, pulling the phone from his ear, twisting around to look at Ray. “Geoff wants us to go to a bar with him tonight. Want to go?”

            The dream flashed in his mind eye as he closed the fridge, two cans of diet coke in hand. “Yeah sure, whatever.” He said, grinning at Ryan. “It’s not like we’re doing anything.”

            “Alright.” Ryan said, smiling at Ray before turning back to their lunch, pressing his phone against his ear again.

            Ray didn’t listen to the one sided conversation. He just slowly went through the motions of setting the table. He wondered how many times he would accidentally set the table for two later.

 

* * *

 

            Ray’s dreams never seemed vivid when he was asleep. When he would wake up, he would have a clear idea of what happened, but not of what was around him. However, once he got to the actual situation, he knew every detail down to the last speck of dust.

            The instant they walked into the bar, Ray knew exactly how the layout would change over the night. Knew that two tables away one of the drunks would spill a beer and the entire table would try to drink as much of the spill as possible. That the waitress that would serve them would come back at some point with messy makeup and red eyes.

            He knew that Geoff would be exactly a minute and a half late and that he’d run into a man running away from a bad date before getting to them. He knew everything the instant he was through the bar’s door way.

            As he followed Ryan past not yet rowdy tables, he felt tired. He felt empty. He knew Ryan knew something was up. His smiles didn’t reach his eyes and his responses were sluggish.

            “We can leave if you want.” Ryan said as they waited for Geoff.

            “He’ll be here in thirty seconds anyway, too late now.” Ray replied with a shrug. He just smiled when Ryan’s eyes widened and Geoff stumbled into the bar and ran into a flustered man.

            Ryan’s eyes snapped from Geoff to Ray, reaching over and taking Ray’s hand. “What’s going to happen?” He said, squeezing his fingers.

            Ray looked down at their hands and tried to memorize the feel. “Something inevitable.” He said softly.

            Ryan sighed and gently ran his thumb over Ray’s knuckles. “So just a panic attack then?” He said, nodding to Geoff when he finally saw them.

            “Yeah.” Ray croaked, afraid to look up and already see the sad look on Ryan’s face. The one from his dream. Just the thought made his nose stuffy again.

            “What’s up assholes?” Geoff laughed, slipping into the booth. Acting like everything was fine was too natural for them, although Ryan never let go of Ray’s hand. He thought that if he tried to ground Ray, the attack wouldn’t happen as suddenly or violently. That never worked and probably never would.

            Ray managed to slip his hand from Ryan’s and avoided holding onto him for the rest of the night, playing with the cup of water he ordered. Ryan didn’t seem bothered, probably believing that Ray was just nervous as he usually was when the future was coming.

            Ray chirped in his usual amount as Ryan and Geoff talked. About an hour later, he looked out into the bar and counted under his breath. Right on time, Griffon and Jack walked through the door and joined them. Ryan made sure they were still on the end, Ray smiled at the feeling of him worrying about him. He wondered how long it would take for him to forget all about Ray.

            As the others talked, Ray felt his anti-social itch and let his head turn to watch the rest of the bar. Two images floated in his eyes, very slowly, reality began to fit into his dream. The man two tables away was spitting out his bear, the waitress was walking toward a table, a tittering platter threatening to fall.

            Ray felt his chest tighten, the harsh burn in his lungs again. There was a burn behind his eyes and he couldn’t fight the panic if he wanted too. Without control, he reached out for Ryan and grabbed his hand. He choked on his breath, trying to breathe.

             Ryan didn’t have to look at Ray. He just made up some excuse Ray couldn’t hear. Looking up, Ryan in reality snapped into place to match his dream self and suddenly everything shifted.

            His panic came crashing down on him like never before. This wasn’t the dream, this was his own. For the first time in his life, he was panicking by himself.

            His mouth fell open, eyes widening and he retched. Ryan jumped before quickly herding him form the booth, carrying him to the bathroom, leaving the image of the dream behind. Once they were crammed into a stall, Ray retched into the toilet twice before vomiting. He went from hot to cold, hyperventilating as his stomach twisted.

            Ryan’s hand was on his back, rubbing soothing circles. The panic had never been like this before. This had to be the worst feeling in the world. Ray was so used to just breaking down into tears. The vomiting, the heat and cold. It was new, it was his own. A therapist years ago had told him he was lucky, he only had minor panic attacks. If this was a major, he never wanted to have one again.

            “Ray, you need to calm down.” Ryan’s voice was sudden and really loud. Ray squeezed his eyes shut and felt the muscles in his arms twitch and lash out. He remembered shouting, but not what he said, pulling his arms tight to his chest. He was going to shake apart.

            Just holding onto his shirt couldn’t stop the twitches as vile words spun in his head. The doubts and depression he hadn’t felt since he met Ryan ate at him and he grabbed at his head, digging his nails in.

            Ryan was talking, but he couldn’t understand him. He tried pulling Ray’s hand from his head, but his arms had another spasm and his nails dug into his skull again. Ray only caught a glance of Ryan as he sobbed and hyperventilated. He looked terrified, eyes wide and hands hovering around Ray, unsure of what to do.

            He saw him mouth his name and something horrible in his head pointed out that if he lost Ryan he would lose everything. He’d lose his happiness, his health, his mind. That made him feel more panicked as he lost control, spiraling away from any sort of normal state of mind. His head became light as he continued to hyperventilate without stopping. His vision spotted black as Ryan reached out for him.

            “Ray!” Ryan gasped as Ray’s eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped to the ground in a heap.

           

* * *

 

            First thing Ray noticed was that he felt like shit. Second was that he hadn’t felt this shitty since he had a stomach flu that made him shit and vomit at the same time. Third was that he wasn’t dead and he was laying on his bed, probably. Forth was that there was a warmth next to him which was most likely Ryan.

            Ray groaned and opened his eyes slowly. He felt like finding a nice dark corner and dying. Or going back to sleep, either option sounded perfect right then.

            “Hey, take it easy.” Ryan said softly and Ray felt himself relax. So he was home and that was Ryan, and he wasn’t dead. Good to know.

            “Rye?” Ray croaked, turning his head slowly to look at Ryan.

            “I’m right here.” Ryan said, fingers carding through Ray’s hair. “How are you feeling?”

            “Like shit.” Ray rasped, smiling shakily at Ryan. He had changed the future, he shouldn’t have been able to, but he did. That never happened with something inevitable. “What happened?”

            “I-“ Ryan stopped and pulled his hand away. He sat awkwardly on the edge of the bed. “You, you just. I think you had a major panic attack and then you passed out. I-I don’t know if what was supposed to happen, happened or not. But, I’ve never seen you do that before. I-god, you looked so broken and I couldn’t do anything.”

            Ray frowned and lazily reached out for Ryan. His head was still spinning and his depth perception was absolute shit without his glasses. Somehow, he managed to rest his hand on Ryan’s arm. “I-it didn’t happen.” He said the pain in his chest returning. No, no. He couldn’t panic now. “It’s okay.”

            “No, it’s not.” Ryan said, standing and letting Ray’s hand fall to the bed.

            A lump threw itself into Ray’s throat so quickly that the force made him sit up right. “Ryan.” Ray breathed, eyes wide.

            Ryan wasn’t looking at him, he was looking at his hands. There was a long moment of silence as the lump got bigger and the burn in his chest made squeezed his lungs so tightly he barely breathed. “I think we should take a break.” Ryan said softly.

            The world dropped away from Ray and he felt horribly sad, but not like he was going to panic any time soon. “No.” He whispered so softly he barely heard himself.

            “I-I can’t help you and I should be able to.” Ryan said, curling his hands into fists. “We should just, take a break. I want to be able to help you, and I just. I feel like I’m making things worse for you.” He searched for his words for a second. “It’ll be only for a few days, I swear. I just, need some time. You’ll be alright.”

            Ray couldn’t speak. _Inevitable_ thudded through his head. A break. Right. Ryan would see how nice being free was and never come back. He should have gathered his things already. “Okay.” Ray croaked, letting his chin drop to his chest. “Okay.”

            Ryan finally looked at him, opening his mouth before closing it again. “Okay.” He said softly before just walking out.

            Ray stared at his hands as tear drops soaked his sheets. He laughed through sobs, clutching the fabric under his hands. He’d let himself cry, let himself just stop existing for a bit. Then he’d pick himself up and keep going, just like before. Before he had Ryan to make him sane, before he only had dreams every so often. He’d be okay. He’d be okay.

           

* * *

 

            He dreamed that night.

            He watched a girl run past an alley way early in the morning. As she passed, hands burst from the darkness and grabbed her, ripping at her clothes and taking everything from her.

            Ray jerked awake and had no control as his legs carried him through his morning hours before they needed to. He dropped his phone onto his kitchen table, yanking his wallet from his back pocket. He pulled out all of his credit cards and ID and let them clatter onto the wood. Perhaps he was lucky that some part of all of this was smarter than he gave it credit for. The sky was still dark when he went outside. The girl was just about to pass him when he started jogging faster than her.

            He had to run faster to keep her from passing him. He wasn’t exactly the fittest person in the world. Actually, running was kind of nice, his head didn’t feel as stuffy.

            He was panting hard by the time the dream fell into his vision and he watched everything click together, accept he was the one being grabbed. There was a knife at his throat and hands groping for his wallet. He didn’t breathe, didn’t move. He watched the girl pass by the alley and barely felt the knife digging into his throat. Running didn’t seem as awesome now.

            He was left slumped in the alley. They didn’t stab him like he thought they might. Four of his fingers on his right hand were broken and they had kick him in the ribs a few times. They left with his wallet, filled with only the few bills he had.

            He sat there for a long time just breathing. He had done this before, he could do this again. Very slowly, he got himself onto his feet and wobbled from the ally way, holding his ribs and pain throbbing up his hand.

            He wandered into the hospital and they whisked him away once they saw the blood dripping off his hand and the exposed bone. He begged them to call Jack instead of Ryan. No need to make this harder.

            Jack took him home, asking a million questions. Ray barely had an answer for any of them. He was mugged. He was fine. Ryan was busy. It was okay. Thanks for getting the pills. Yes, he was sure he’d be alright.

            When he got into his apartment, he meandered through the rooms, grabbing the first box of cereal he found and searching for his phone. He still felt like shit from the pain medication they gave him. He vaguely remembered that his phone was on the kitchen table through the fog of pain medication.

            Taking a shaking breath, he picked up his phone and went into the living room. He dropped onto the couch, feet propped up on the arm rest and his head flat against the cushion. He struggled with the box and phone for a moment, unable to even move his poor fingers in the cast that covered his entire hand and continued on a little past his wrist.

            Eventually he placed the box on the ground within easy reach of his good hand and with the top opened and the bag ripped. Before grabbing a handful, he searched his contacts for Michael’s number, never happier that M came before R.

            This was routine. He hadn’t even thought about this in a while. Of course, he had called Michael when things were better, he was his best friend and the only other person that knew about his problem. However, Michael lived in New Jersey and there was little he could do, but Ray had promised him to call him after ever event because he was alone.

            Well, now he was alone again. He paused, thumb hovering over the call button. He swallowed down the fear of how easily he fell back into everything. He didn’t even have to remind himself. Shaking himself gently, careful of his spinning head, he pressed the green phone. As the phone rang on speaker, Ray set it on his chest then stuffed his face with Cheerios to keep from crying.

            “Hey fuck face.” Michael’s voice filled the room and Ray nearly shoved another handful of cereal in his mouth to keep from crying in relief. “What’s up?”

            Ray smiled bitterly, holding his cast up to look at the plastic fibers. “Four of my fingers were broken so badly they thought I’d lose them.” He said, letting the cast drop to his chest with a hollow thud.

            Michael was completely silent on the other end of the phone. Ray closed his eyes and smiled as Michael started to breathe heavily. He could picture his face almost perfectly. The fear, worry, anger, all swirling together as his fingers nearly cracked his phones plastic casing. His face would turn red, veins poking out of his neck. He would be staring straight ahead, trying to control himself.

            “What happened?” Michael said eventually, voice much calmer than Ray was expecting. Michael was a yeller when he was mad. He was calm when he was worried.

            “I got mugged.” Ray croaked, searching around for the yellow box without opening his eyes. “Before someone else did.”

            Michael was silent again. They hadn’t had a call like this in three years. “Where’s Ryan?”

            Ray was hoping he wouldn’t ask. Hoped Michael would go back to before like he had. He was never lucky. “He wanted to take a break.” Ray said, feeling the strain burn his throat. His eyes itched and he managed to find the box just in time to stop himself from crying again.

            “A _break_?” Michael hissed, the line crackling as his grip on the phone stressed the casing.

            “Please.” Ray mumbled around Cheerios. “Can we just-?”  
            Michael was silent and Ray swallowed, stuffing his face again to keep from talking. “What happened?” Michael said eventually. He was still mad, still worried, still upset. He wouldn’t ask again. Ray wondered what he did to deserve him.

 

* * *

 

            “I’m coming.” Michael snapped over the phone. Ray hadn’t moved further from the couch. Every other night he would dream and in the morning would let his body carry him through the day. He went to work and ate just enough. He didn’t sleep unless he was forced to.

            “Michael.” Ray groaned, forgetting about his cast and smacking himself in the head with the hard white plastic trying to rub his eyes. He scowled at his hand before reaching up with the other. He paused when the white gauze on his forearm blared against his black t-shirt. He stepped into the middle of a knife fight, taking the wound that would have killed a man with hemophilia.

            “I’m coming.” Michael said sternly, clothes and suit cases ruffling in the background. “I already bought the damn ticket.”

            Ray sighed and let his arm fall to his side. His phone rested on his chest, a few empty boxes of cereal and pop tarts littered the ground. “Fine.” He huffed, closing his eyes.

            The phone was eerily quiet for a moment. Ray cracked and eye open and peaked at the bright screen, waiting to see if the line went dead. “Does Ryan know?” Michael said nearly gently.

            “Yeah, he knows.” Ray said softly, bitter pain punching his chest. Michael hadn’t brought Ryan up since Ray called him a week ago.

            “No, did he _know._ ” Michael said, something thudding in the background.

            Ray frowned and squeezed his eyes shut again. “No.” Michael was silent again and Ray didn’t bother opening his eyes. “I didn’t want- he. It didn’t matter.”

            “You’re a fucking idiot.” Michael sighed and Ray was sure he had dropped his head into his hand. “If he had known that you can’t-“

            “Michael. Please.” Ray croaked, balling his hand into a fist and wincing when he pulled his stiches. “Just, when are you getting hear?”

           

* * *

 

            Was two weeks too long? Probably. He was tired and frustrated. Couldn’t sleep without Ray beside him. Books were stacked tall on his desk, a large tomb laid open in front of him. A picture of a tiny creature with a long beard mocked him.

            Ryan groaned and rubbed his face, squeezing his eyes shut. There was no way Ray was some weird fairy thing. That meant he was at yet another dead end. There were no records of someone like Ray, no stories, no ancestors. No one else in Ray’s family had the ability, didn’t even know Ray had dreams.

            Ryan sighed into his hands before dropping them onto the book. He scowled at the creature before dropping his forehead against the pages. There was nothing for him to find and he felt worse. He couldn’t even do this for Ray, much less help him through his dreams.

            The memory of the bar flashed in his eyes and he cringed. He wasn’t sure if Ray remembered, but he could still him shout for him to stop. For him not to touch him. He had just made Ray’s panic _worse,_ which was the last thing he wanted to do. He had never been much of a help before, just trying to ground Ray and count his breathing for him. Ray was probably fine, better off without Ryan there to make him feel worse.

            Ryan sighed and leaned back in his chair, grabbing the notebook where he kept all of his dead ends. He scratched off the word Korrigan before tossing the book back onto the desk. He watched the papers flap in the wind, the book folding a few pages in landing. As the pages fluttered down, he dropped his hands into his lap, he tiled his head back and closed his eyes, trying to think of some other lead.

            He sat there for two hours, falling asleep half way through the first. He dreamed of Ray leading him into a store. He watched Ray’s eyes go wide and the panic set in. He reached out for him, but couldn’t reach him. The store was suddenly miles away.

            Ryan ran until his lungs burned and his feet screamed for him to stop, but he kept going, kept reaching for Ray. Just as he thought he had gotten close enough, Ray smiling just at him, a knife plunged into Ray’s chest and he fell to the ground, blood pouring from his eyes and mouth.

            The word _inevitable_ haunted him as he screamed and dropped to his knees. He pulled Ray to his chest as the blood came to his waist. He heard Ray’s broken screams, the body thrashing in his arms. He couldn’t let go, didn’t want to.

            He jerked awake with a yell. Sweat plastering his hair to his head and his entire body trembling. He panted hard, looking around him wildly. His desk hadn’t moved and his chair squeaked under him as he realized he was awake and slumped back into the black leather.

            As his breathing slowly evened out, he pressed a shaking hand to his eyes and tried not to remember. He had to do something, had to take this curse away from Ray before they both went crazy.

           

* * *

 

            Michael was startled awake by Ray shaking him. He blinked at his friend, a crick in his neck from how he fell asleep on the couch.

            Ray wobbled next to him on his knees, hands awkwardly gripping his shoulders. He was ten times paler, eyes nearly bugging from his head. His breaths came out shaking as sweat dripped from his hair.

            “Ray?” Michael groaned, rubbing his eye with one hand and reaching out to Ray with the other. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

            Ray collapsed against him, head on his shoulder and their sides pressed together. “I could die tomorrow.” His voice was rough and low.

            Michael went ridged, sleepiness draining away as he wrapped his arms around Ray in a tight hug. “No you fucking won’t.” He hissed, squeezing Ray tightly.

            Ray sobbed brokenly into his shirt and Michael just let him cry. He hadn’t had a dream that bad in years. Not since he pushed a teacher out of the way of a bus in middle school. They thought he would die when they got him to the hospital. He made a full recovery.

            “Fucking universe loves you too much to kill you off.” Michael said after a moment when Ray’s sobs subsided.

            Ray laughed brokenly, still clinging to Michael’s shirt. They were silent listening to each other breath, Ray’s clogged and noisy while Michael’s was slow and silent. They didn’t even make any other noises long enough for Michael to assume Ray cried himself to sleep, again. “Do you think he’s already forgotten?” Ray said, startling Michael out of his dozing.

            Michael looked down at Ray, his eyes were closed and his breathing was still uneven. His lips were parted, nose red and running. Michael frowned and rested his cheek on top of Ray’s head. “I don’t know.” He said softly, rubbing Ray’s back. “But I’m going to fucking kick his ass the second I see him.”

            Ray laughed, pressing more against Michael. He slowly relaxed and soft snores slipped from him. Michael stayed awake, lips pressed tight. He had figured out years ago that the dreams got more frequent and more violent the more depressed Ray became. The healthier, the more mild.

            Ray would be okay, eventually, but Ryan had torn out his heart and stomped all over it. That would take time and Michael honestly didn’t know how much time. Ray had just hit his rock bottom, dreaming of nearly dying had only happened when his parents got divorced and in Middle School. He was hitting his bottom again and it took years to get him back up again.

            Michael looked down at Ray before leaning his head back. He puffed a sigh and closed his eyes. After he made sure Ray lived through tomorrow, he’d go have a talk with Ryan. Someone needed to punch the bastard.

           

* * *

 

            He had it. He finally fucking had it. A record, a woman from the Salem witch trials. She had dreams that predicted the future and she would lose her mind and body when the premonitions came to pass.

            There wasn’t much on her, just her trial and her death, but it was something. Maybe her ability passed on through her family, maybe she had a journal. Maybe she knew how to stop it. It was something.

            Ryan grinned down at his notebook, eating his first hot meal in a while. Once he had what he needed, he could see Ray again. He could actually help him instead of hurt him. He could hold him, kiss his head, and tell him he loved him again. He could have it all back.

            A knock on his door nearly made him jump out of his skin. He frowned and sighed, setting the paper plate with a slice of half eaten pizza aside to get the door. Geoff or Jack probably wanted demand to know what the fuck happened or try to drag him outside again. He was so close now, he didn’t need distractions.

            He flung open his door without looking through the peephole and came face to face with a short man with curly hair and anger in his eyes. He blinked at the man who scowled up at him. Faintly, he remembered a picture Ray had shown him on his phone.

            “You’re Ryan, right?” The man said, face slowly turning red as Ryan nodded.

            “You’re, Michael?” Ryan said slowly before his head was snapped to the side, his jaw and cheek aching.

            “You fuck face!” Michael howled, jabbing his finger into Ryan’s chest as Ryan reached up and held his throbbing jaw. “You absolute piece of shit!”

            Ryan blinked down at Michael in shock, backing away as Michael tried to loom over him. “W-what?” He said, flinching when Michael’s hand turned into a fist again.

            “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Michael spat, following Ryan into his apartment. “Do you even care?”

            Ryan’s brow furrowed and he stopped moving backwards. “What the hell are you talking about?” He said, glaring down at Michael.

            “I’m talking about Ray!” Michael snapped, folding his arms. His fingers curled into his jacket to keep himself from punching Ryan again.

            Ryan tensed and his glare clouded with worry. Michael was Ray’s friend form _New Jersey._ If he was here, then, “Ray? What happened? Is he alright?”

            “Of course he’s not fucking alright.” Michael grit his teeth, grip tightening on his jacket. “Because of you he nearly died!”

            Ryan’s eyes widened and suddenly his chest hurt a lot more than his jaw. “What?” He breathed, letting his hand drop from his cheek. “W-what happened? Where is he?”

            Michael scowled at him, eyes narrowing. “Hospital. He got hit by a car saving some douchebag in a suit.”

            Ryan flinched and glanced at his notebook still resting on the kitchen counter. “His dreams?” He said, looking back at Michael. “They’ve never been that violent.”

            Michael frowned, his arms were tense and he was staring Ryan up and down. “Oh, right. You don’t fucking know.”

            “Don’t know what?” Ryan shot back, heart pounding against his ribs and legs itching. Which hospital had they taken Ray to? Why hadn’t they called him? He was still Ray’s emergency contact, wasn’t he?

            Michael bit his lip, letting the tension in his shoulders drop. His arms fell to his sides. “Can I come in? This is a long fucking story.”

            Ryan shifted his weight from foot to foot. “I’d rather go see Ray.”

            “Nope.” Michael snorted, pushing his way into the apartment. “You haven’t fucking earned that right yet.”

            Ryan scowled, but didn’t push the issue. His stinging jaw proved he wouldn’t win that argument. Instead he closed the door and lead Michael into the kitchen. He glanced at the pizza, but no longer had the stomach.

            Gesturing for Michael to sit across from him at the small bar that was in the middle of his kitchen, he sat on his stool and let his leg bounce to ease his worries. “Tell away.” He grumbled, reaching up to rub his already swelling jaw.

            Michael sat in the stool with a heavy sigh. “Ray’s always had these dreams.” He said, leaning forward on his elbows. “He can remember dreaming his parents having a fight over his fucking crib.”

            Ryan leaned back a bit in surprise, his shaking leg slowing its pace. “That can’t be possible.”

            “Well it fucking is.” Michael snapped, shooting Ryan a glare. “Anyway, he’s always had these dreams and they get worse the unhealthier he is. I figured that out in Middle School. When he’s depressed they start getting violent and if he’s hit his lowest point, he dreams of near death experiences.” He continued, pausing and daring Ryan to comment.

Ryan said nothing, staring hard at Michael. “He’s only been really depressed now three times in his life.” Michael continued, dropping his hands onto the bar. “The first time was when his parents got divorced, he nearly died taking a blow to the head that was going to hit some girl. The second time was in Middle School. He pushed a teacher out of the way of a speeding bus. Every time they thought he would die but he didn’t. He always made a full recovery.”

            “You said three times.” Ryan said after a moment, Michael’s words slowly turning the gears in his head.

            “This is the third time.” Michael said, glaring at Ryan. “He’s had plenty of people just abandon him for this shit. It’s hard to deal with someone having panic attacks all of the fucking time, I know that, but he’s had people he really loves just up an leave him, including his dad. When you came along-“ Michael paused, searching for his words, eyes darting around the granite top of the bar.

            Ryan waited with a pounding heart. His chest burned hotter and the thud in his jaw echoed through his body. “When you came along, he was happy.” Michael sighed, staring hard at the counter. “The happiest I’ve seen him. I mean, he didn’t need to call me about the dreams anymore, they weren’t trying to hurt him anymore.”

            Ryan opened his mouth, probably to say something about how he didn’t break up with Ray, he just wanted some times away. Time off to figure out what he was doing, but Michael’s head snapped up and he shut his mouth.

            “And then you went and told him what everyone else had.” Michael snarled, slamming his hands on the counter and pushing himself up a bit. “You abandoned him.”

            Ryan leaned back as Michael leaned forward, he opened his mouth, but Michael cut him off. “No, don’t you fucking dare. I don’t care if that was what you intended or not. Everyone tells Ray that and every single one of them _never_ came back. Ray was okay before because never loved any of them as much as he did you. He dropped like a fucking rock because the dreams hadn’t been this bad in so long. That shit ruins people.”

            Ryan’s heart shattered into a million pieces. Hurting Ray was the last thing he wanted to do. Hell, he was trying to prevent doing that. “W-why didn’t he tell me this?” He croaked instead of the millions of other things he was thinking.

            Michael huffed a sigh, slowly easing back onto the stool. “He never tells a new person because he doesn’t want to keep explaining it over and over again. No one ever stays.”

            Ryan looked at Michael then slowly looked down at his notebook. He could have handled this a million ways and he chose the worst one. The night at the bar floated in his memory and he realized that his stupid ass decision was what was to happen. Something inevitable was what Ray had said. He wondered if Ray thought being alone for the rest of his life was exactly that.

 

* * *

 

            Ray had broken nearly all of the ribs on his left side, recrushed his hand, broken his right arm, had road rash on nearly every inch of his skin, and slammed his head against the concert so hard that he left a dent. He shouldn’t be alive.

            “Lucky me.” Ray croaked, smiling dazed at the doctor who was shaking her head at him.

            “Just, amazing.” She said, reaching out and squeezing the fingers poking out of his cast. “You’ll make a full recovery.”       

            _Always have._ Ray nodded and watched the doctor leave. A note rested in his lap from Michael, the nurse had laid the paper on his chest when he woke up. Apparently this was the last straw and he had gone off to punch Ryan in the face. Ray tried to lie to himself, thinking that he felt back for Ryan. A moment later he smiled; that was the second best news he had heard in weeks.

            The first was that he was going to live. He never had a death wish, no matter how bad things got. Hell, he was terrified of dying. Whatever led him to the situations that risked his life always made sure he got back up in the end. He guessed that was the only upside to this hell he was stuck in.

            Ray read over the note again, smiling to himself when he reached the end. He wouldn’t be leaving here for a while and after an event like that, the dreams tended to ease up. Probably because he wasn’t in any condition to stop any future from happening.

            He’d be okay. He’d take this time to make sure he would continue to be okay. He could do this, he had done so before.

            Leaning his head back against a soft pillow, he closed his eyes and took as deep a breath as his cracked ribs would let him. He still felt groggy from the medicine and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep.

            “Oh god.”

            Ray jumped, eyes snapping open. Ryan was standing in the door way. He looked as bad as Ray felt, although, Ray was fairly certain he looked _worse_ than he actually felt. Ryan was pale with heavy bags under his eyes. He looked thinner than Ray remembered. A purpling bruise covered his left jaw, his cheek swollen a considerable amount.

            Ray blinked slowly, wishing he could reach up and rub his eyes, or maybe pinch himself because he was dreaming already. Ryan left. He wasn’t coming back.

            “Oh shit.” Ryan breathed, stumbling into the room. “What- are you?” He gasped out, eyes bouncing from cast to cast, hands hanging in the air, almost reaching out for Ray. He eventually found his way in front of the chair at his bed side. “I’m so sorry.” He dropped into the chair, chin to his chest and hands dangling between his legs.

            Ray opened then closed his mouth again. A cough from the door way made him look up. Michael stood there, arms folded as he leaned against the door way. He shrugged when Ray gave him a questioning look, gesturing back to Ryan.

            Ray frowned and looked down at Ryan who was still staring at the ground. “Rye?” He rasped, shifting uncomfortably. “Why are you here?”

            Ryan’s head snapped up and he stood. He reached out for Ray’s hand, froze at the sight of the cast. Pulling his hand back, he tried to card his fingers through Ray’s hair, but his head was wrapped in gauze. “I-God. I’m so sorry.” Ryan’s voice cracked as his hand hung at his side. His eyes were red and puffy.

            Ray’s jaw dropped and he tried to find anything to say. “Y-you came back.” He said slowly, searching Ryan’s face when he nodded. “Why?”

            “I-” Ryan started then stopped himself, looking Ray over before looking him right in the eyes with determination. “I thought I could make things better. I thought I was the problem when that was just fucking stupid.” He clenched his jaw, shoulders tense, before slowly relaxing. “I’m sorry Ray. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

            Ray blinked up at Ryan for a long moment before barking out a painful, wet laugh. “Asshole.” His voice shook as he gave Ryan a sad smile. “Damn right it was fucking stupid.”  
            Ryan puffed a laugh, dropping into the chair again. He hesitantly reached out and squeezed Ray’s unbroken arm. “I have to make it up to you.”

            “No shit.” Ray snorted, leaning his head back. “Later though, now I’m tired.”

            “I bet.” Ryan croaked, gently running his thumb over his skin lightly. “You were hit by a car.”

            Ray smiled at the warmth radiating from Ryan’s hand. He’d be okay. He always was, eventually.


	2. Vagamuffin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan had to be the creepiest mother fucker any of them had the pleasure of knowing. He rarely took off his black skull mask and he never spoke. He would stand in dark corners, arms folded and glaring at all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!

            Ryan had to be the creepiest mother fucker any of them had the pleasure of knowing. He rarely took off his black skull mask and he never spoke. He would stand in dark corners, arms folded and glaring at all of them.

            Geoff had known Ryan the longest, they had worked together before the crew. He wouldn’t hug Ryan or call him a friend, however. He always kept his distance, but was the least surprised when Ryan came home covered in blood and gore.

            Jack just didn’t bother. She had tried once, tried to pull him into their little family. She had nearly gotten a knife to her shoulder for her efforts. Since, she would just quietly clean up whatever mess Ryan had made and then go about her day acting like nothing happened.

            Gavin certainly tried the hardest. He would invade Ryan’s personal space and talk his ears off. After the first month Ryan stayed with them, Gavin constantly walked away from his efforts with knifes and wounds. Eventually he figured out that as long as he didn’t touch Ryan, he wouldn’t be hurt.

            Michael tried the least. He hated Ryan. Hated his stupid face and angry eyes. Hated how he hurt Gavin and didn’t interact with any of them. He barely spat in Ryan’s direction, making snide comments whenever Ryan was within ear shot.

            Ray honestly didn’t care. Ryan didn’t like to talk, that’s fine. Everyone talked enough for him. He didn’t like to interact. Ray got that, he would spend weeks in his room to get away from everyone. Ryan didn’t like being touched, cool. Neither did Ray. The extent of their interactions were done in their eyes, they had barely spoken a word to each other since meeting, but quick looks of understanding would shoot between them and that was all they needed.

            If anyone in the crew was to choose one of them to be Ryan’s favorite, all of them would point at Ray. On heists, Ryan would trail after Ray and they usually escaped together. In the penthouse, if Ryan sat down on the couch, he would be next to Ray.

            None of them really thought Ryan would go out of the way for Ray, much less the rest of them. They were all fairly certain that he would leave them to die. Ray was never so sure. As the only one to look Ryan in the eyes, he was the only one to catch the soft fondness in bright oceans. Ryan cared, he just didn’t know how to express what he felt or just didn’t want to.

            Ray was never happier for that twenty percent of him that thought Ryan cared when he ran right into a fire fight in the middle of a heist. Michael had told him he was clear when he started to climb down from his sniper nest. When he actually got to the ground, there were three times the cops and a hundred times the amount of bullets in the air.

            Ray waited until the rain of lead had paused to burst from the alleyway he was hiding in. He focused only on the van full of his family and payment. He didn’t even make it halfway across the street before the police started firing only at him.

            Bullets bounced off the ground and whizzed through the air. He felt one just slip past his head without hitting as another hit his shoulder. One went right through his ankle and he nearly crumbled. He heard shouting and more gun fire through the rushing blood in his ears, but he didn’t care. He had to keep going.

            Another bullet logged itself into his hip and he started to fall. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting to hit the ground and for more bullets to riddle him full of holes. Instead, the air was knocked out of him as strong arms slammed into his chest and middle, picking him up and holding him close to a strong chest.

            The shouting got faint as the world got darker. He could hear the rapid heartbeat of whoever was holding him and pressed into the sound. He could feel their breathing, their lungs expanding and exhaling ruggedly.

            Closing his eyes, he could almost feel the blood draining from his wounds. His entire body ached and some part of his fogging head thought he’d feel better after a good nap. He heard an unfamiliar voice yell at him to stay awake, but he was already too far gone to care.

            His dreams were dark. He stood on nothing as dark browns and grays swirled with blackness. There was nothing for him to do or think, just emptiness. Panic was pulling at him, making him run, making him scream without a voice. Sometimes he was being chased, other times he was doing the chasing.

            Occasionally he would glance back and see nothing. He would look forward again and keep going with tireless lungs, hoping he wasn’t going in circles. Once he looked back and crashed into something.

            As he bounced away, tripping over his feet, familiar arms wrapped around him and pulled him tightly to a warm body. “Ray.” Someone sobbed, pressing a nose and cheek into his hair. “Oh god, please wake up.”

            Ray frowned, heart pounding and lungs squeezing. His arms and legs trembled as he struggled to find his footing, clinging to a familiar leather jacket.

            “Ryan?” Ray said slowly, looking at the jacket before looking up. Ryan was without his mask, blue eyes wet as tears rolled down smooth cheeks. His blond hair was long and pulled back into a beautiful braid.

            “Ray, you have to wake up.” Ryan said, his voice deep and rough. He looked horribly lost, tensing when Ray reached up and ran his fingers over the line of his jaw.

            “You’re handsome, what the fuck.” Ray snorted, smiling at the feeling of stubble. “Where’s your mask?”

            Ryan bit his lip, but a sobbed laugh escaped him. He held Ray tighter, pressing his face into the crook of his neck. “I’ve done everything. Please. Just, I need you to wake up.”

            Ray frowned and carefully picked up Ryan’s braid. The hair was clean and smooth, expertly braided in a complicate pattern that Ray couldn’t began to trace. “I’ll wake up.” He said after a moment, shoulder damp. “I promise.”

            Ryan didn’t say anything, just held Ray tighter. Had this not been a dream, he might have crushed Ray with how tightly he was holding him. Ray smiled and gently pet Ryan’s hair, careful to not mess up his smoothed strands.

            Closing his eyes and resting his cheek on Ryan’s shoulder, he didn’t see the light leak into the inky blackness. He jerked awake to sunlight hitting him in the eyes and his entire body aching.

            “Fuuuuck.” Ray hissed through his teeth, trying to relax. He squeezed his eyes shut against the sun. Taking a few deep breaths, not wincing when all of his muscles protested, he slowly raised the arm hurting the least up to his eyes and pressed his thumb and pointer finger against his forehead.

            When he opened his eyes again, his eyes were shaded by his fingers, although he still had to squint. He jumped when something groaned and shifted beside him. He grit his teeth as pain flared through his body.

            Taking his time to relax again, Ray slowly turned his head and blinked slowly at the man sitting next to his bed. Ryan was slouched over without his mask. He looked just as he had in his dream, except his jacket was thrown onto the floor. His black shirt was stiff in places and his hands were stained red.

            Ray frowned and tried to look around the room. The open window made it hard for him to see anything against the glare. He didn’t have his glasses to help clarify everything. As far as he could tell, he had no idea where he was.

            Sighing, he dropped his head back onto the pillow and closed his eyes again. He rested his arm at his side and decided to sleep for a little while longer.

            When he woke again, the sun was down and Ryan was gone. Ray bit his lip to withhold a groan as he tried to sit up. His legs were heavily wrapped in plaster. One arm hurt just thinking about it, so he pushed himself up slowly with one arm and protesting muscles.

            When he was finally resting against the headboard, he left out a soft groan and closed his eyes again. Pain rippled through him, making his brows furrow. “Fuck.” He sighed, opening his eyes again.

            The room was still blurry, but now there was no sun with only a little light streaming in from the window, which still didn’t help his sight. He could hear the rustle of someone in the kitchen, pots clicking and water running. Ryan’s jacket was gone, as far as Ray could tell, although there were dark splotches everywhere.

            Frowning, he squinted at the nightstand and saw two familiar blobs. Reaching for one, he unfolded the arms and slipped his glasses onto his face. Blinking as everything cleared, he grabbed the skull mask and held it in his lap.

            Staring into the eyes, he half expected them to suddenly light up blue. Shaking the thought, he ran his fingers over the top of the skull. The plastic was smooth and clean. He raised the mask up and considered slipping it on for a moment before shaking his head with a pained chuckle. He set the skull back on the night stand and looked around the room again.

            There was a bookcase with a couple of books on the shelves. A dresser held a large duffle bag with the shining butts of guns sticking out. A door next to the dresser was cracked open, showing the dark interior of a bathroom. A metal chair rested next to the bed, shining slightly in what little light was getting in through the window. The room was plain, everything white, including the ceiling, carpet, and walls.

            Ray squinted at the dark patches that covered the carpet, sheets, and a few places on the walls. He knew they could either be mud or blood, probably both. The sheets were the worst, they were soaked. Ray didn’t doubt that they were soaked all the way down to the mattress.

            He ran his fingers over the stiff stains and frowned. Was all of this his? He knew he had been shot a couple times, but had no idea how badly. If the sheets were anything to go by, he was lucky to be alive.

            The soft patter of socked feet slipped into the room with the light from under another door next to a closed closet. Ray looked at the door, blinking as the hinges squeaked and light flooded into the room.

            Nearly a shadow in the hallway light, Ryan paused on the threshold. His shoulders had a slump and his hair looked like he had been pulling at it, sending stray strands everywhere. Ray grinned at him, blinking as the lights snapped on.

            He blinked a few times to adjust to the light. When Ryan came into focus, he was already at Ray’s side. “Hey there big guy.” Ray croaked, throat suddenly extremely dry. He coughed twice before jumping when a warm hand gently rubbed his back.

            Ryan’s weight sunk into the bed beside Ray as he sat, hand on his back and big blue eyes worried. Ray looked up at him then grinned. Hesitantly, he reached out with his good arm and patted Ryan’s cheek. “Nice face.”

            Ryan tensed as Ray’s hand dropped. His brow furrowed and he slowly turned and saw his mask on the night stand. His head snapped back to Ray, eyes wide with fear.

            “Go for it, I like the skull.” Ray puffed a laugh, snickering gently when Ryan dived for his mask and yanked it onto his head. He was halfway across the room in an instant. He fussed with the mask for a moment before turning to look at Ray, eyes wide and scared.

            “Much better.” Ray nodded, voice still sounding like gravel being ground under tires. “You okay?”

            “Am _I_ okay?” Ryan snorted, the jaw of the mask bending as he spoke. He sounded just as he had in Ray’s dream, with significantly less sobbing. “Ray, you _died._ ”

            Ray’s eyebrows shot toward his hair line before he snorted a laugh. “I’m fine.” He said, with a dismissive wave of his hand.

            “I had to give you CPR.” Ryan snapped, moving back over to the bed. “You died, you’re lucky I could bring you back.”

            Ray frowned and looked at his lap. He slowly bended his fingers and savored the pain that shot through him. “Oh.” He said softly. He swallowed thickly before looking up at Ryan and forcing a smile. “Thanks.”

            Ryan’s eyes looked horribly tired as his shoulders dropped and he sunk down next to Ray again. “Yeah.” He huffed, shaking his head. “We’re stuck here for a while. The police are still looking for us.”

            “One of yours?” Ray said, glancing around the room again before focusing on Ryan. Those dark patches were dried blood.

            Ryan nodded and looked Ray over, glancing at his legs and shoulder. “We might be stuck here until you can walk again. The others are fine and are hiding. You know how this works.”

            “Fucking great.” Ray snorted, scowling at his legs. “That’s going to fucking suck.”

            “No moving.” Ryan said sternly, narrowing his eyes at Ray. “None at all.”

            Ray snorted and grinned at Ryan. “Absolutely no promises, big guy.” He said, laughing when Ryan deep sighed at him. “Hey, can I drink something at least? My throat is killing me.”

            Ryan tensed and was on his feet in a moment. He nodded once before nearly jogging from the room. Ray blinked after him, smiling crookedly. Ryan was talking to him, showed him his face even if unintentionally. Ryan had fucking saved his life. This was going to be a weird forced vacation.

            Ryan had returned with a glass of water and a giant pill. Ray took both and swallowed the pill without blinking. “Just so you know.” He said, handing the empty glass to Ryan. “I am a fucking light weight on pain pills.”

            Ryan nodded and that was all Ray remembered. He didn’t take medication for headaches, sometimes for bullet wounds as well. He didn’t like medicine, didn’t like how they made him feel, but this time, the aching was just too horrible for him not to take something. He was just glad the stuff knocked him out.

            As he went in and out of sleep and medicated hazes, Ryan was always beside him. He was feeding him and making sure he drank. Instead of carrying him to the bathroom, he had him use a water bottle and dutifully emptied it out for him.

            Ryan was the best nurse had ever had, and that was including Jack. When he refused to take the pills, Ryan didn’t fight him. He just set the pills aside and sat in the metal chair, arms folded. He wouldn’t say anything as Ray rambled just to fill the silence, but Ray knew he was listening.

            Blue eyes followed his every gesture, movement, and breath. Sometimes Ray would wake at night to find Ryan watching his chest, making sure he was breathing. Other times he would hear him mumbled in his sleep. He couldn’t make out what he was saying, but just reaching out and letting his hand rest on Ryan’s knee would calm him. In the morning, he would always have his hand back and Ryan acted like he didn’t know so Ray assumed he didn’t.

            Ryan didn’t speak after the first day. He would grunt or sometimes laugh, but he never said anything. The mask was always on and sometimes Ray could see the plastic jaw stretch then relax again before a sound could be made.

            Ray never commented. Never brought up seeing his face or hearing his voice. He didn’t deem it necessary. Ryan liked his privacy and so did Ray. They understood each other without having to speak, it was enough.

            “No, please.” Ray groaned, pushing away the penicillin pill Ryan held out to him. He had been taking them every six hours to make sure he didn’t get an infection while healing. After about a week of taking them, his stomach suddenly started to churn. He had already vomited once. “I feel fucking horrible.”

            Ryan’s eyes were swirling with worry as he nodded and set the pill on the night stand. He watched Ray try to breathe slowly from the chair, folding and unfolding his fingers. “You’re allergic.” Ryan said suddenly.

            Ray frowned and turned his head to look at him. Ryan was staring at his hands which were folded again, knuckles white. “My tongues not black and fuzzy though.”

            Ryan’s head snapped up and he stared at Ray’s smile for a moment before puffing a laugh. “There are other symptoms.” He said, shaking his head. “You should be alright to stop taking them, it was just a precaution.”

            “Cool.” Ray nodded, closing his eyes when the world began to spin. “Great. Awesome. I think I’m going to puke.”

            Ray laughed hoarsely when he heard the metal chair fall over and Ryan’s hurried steps to get a trashcan. He didn’t puke, but he came close a few times. Ryan was beside him through all of it, he didn’t touch him again, but his hands hovered over his back. The warmth radiation off of him was enough.

            The penicillin worked through his body in three days, leaving him feeling much better. As he ate the breakfast Ryan brought him, he felt blue eyes on him again and still didn’t comment.

            “Thank you.” Ryan said suddenly, startling Ray out of a daze.

            Ray looked at Ryan with wide eyes for a moment, swallowing the food in his mouth before he choked. “What?” He said, tilting his head at Ryan.

            “Thank you for not asking.” Ryan said carefully, staring hard at Ray. “For just, accepting.”

            “Oh.” Ray said before shrugging and returning to the tray on his lap. He still had half a pancake to eat. “Whatever, big guy. Each to their own, right?”

            Ryan didn’t move, barely looked like he was breathing. “No, really. Thank you.” He pressed out after a moment.

            Ray paused, folded pancake on his fork inches from his mouth. He looked over at Ryan, taking in how soft his eyes were. Huffing, he lowered the fork and smiled gently at Ryan. “Its fine, Rye.”

            Ryan nodded, eyes sparkling. Ray snorted and shook his head, finally eating the rest of some of the best pancakes he had ever had. “Also, you make some badass pancakes, what the fuck?”

            Ryan burst out laughing and Ray raised an eyebrow. “Sorry.” Ryan coughed, taking the tray from Ray’s lap. “You amuse me.”

            “Hell yeah I do. I’m a fucking riot.” Ray said, folding his arms carefully and puffing up his chest.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and reached to ruffle Ray’s hair before pulling his hand back and slipping from the room. Ray watched him go with an amused grin.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan liked keeping to himself. He didn’t trust and didn’t like being touched. Speaking was too much effort when no one would listen. He was happy being the way he was. People were scared of him which meant they’d leave him alone. The mask hid him away from the world and no one dared cross him.

            He had never meet anyone like Ray before. Met plenty like Geoff who tolerated him, plenty like Jack who just tried to forget he existed. Millions like Michael and a few like Gavin. None interested him, none left him be. All of them wanted something from him, wanted his words and secrets.

            Never had he met someone like Ray. Someone who didn’t care, who just accepted what he was without a second thought. Each to their own, Ryan had never heard better words leave a human’s mouth before.

            Ray had fascinated him before. If someone was to ask him who his favorite Fake AH Crew member was, he would point to Ray without hesitation, if he pointed at all. If someone was to hurt Ray, he’d rip them limb from limb. He was still plotting how to blow up the police station without anyone knowing.

            Seeing Rau get shot made him panic, made him want to scream. Instead, he ran out into the gun fire and grabbed Ray and ran. How he avoided getting shot himself, he’ll probably never know. He carried Ray to the safe house and had the only doctor he had ever trusted, himself, to repair his wounds. The bullet to his hip missed his bones but was bleeding badly. His ankle was shattered and his shin bone snapped in half. His shoulder had a bullet lodged in the bone.

            He didn’t realize until later that he had ripped his mask off once they were safe and started crying, begging Ray to wake up the entire time he worked. He would do anything if Ray would just wake up. When he did, Ryan wanted to cry all over again.

            Now, just having Ray there with him just made his feelings worse. Having Ray not ask why he didn’t talk again, why he didn’t remove his mask and show his face again. Each to their own, he didn’t think words could sound so right.

            When he left his safe house one night, snuck into the penthouse, and gabbed Ray’s DS, games, and charger, he realized he would do anything for Ray. Anything to see his eyes light up. Ray only had so much to talk about and as much as Ryan enjoyed watching and hearing him, Ray was starting to get restless which could only end badly.

            He was rewarded for his dangerous act with a beautiful smile and a painful punch to the arm to not do something so stupid again. He was in bliss. As Ray played his games, Ryan memorized everything about the moment, his slouch on the bed, his focus on the game, the way his tongue just barely poked past his lips.

            Ryan’s smile stressed the mask and for the first time since he bought the skull all of those years ago, he felt like he could barely breathe. Ray hadn’t seen his face for three weeks, but hadn’t commented. Hadn’t asked why he wore the mask.

 _I like the skull._ Echoed in Ryan’s head as he slowly reached up and slipped his fingers under his mask. Ray continued to peck away at his game as Ryan carefully removed his mask, the edges and lines catching his hair and pulling at his skin as the skull slipped free.

            Swallowing down nerves, he gently set the mask on the nightstand. When he looked back at Ray, he was grinning at him. “Hey, want to actually see what I’m doing?” He said, nodding toward his DS. His eyes weren’t wide with shock, he hadn’t even stuttered.

            Ryan smiled and nodded, sliding from the chair to the bed. They sat with a breath of space between them. Ray explained the game as he played. When Ryan made comments he grinned every time Ray wheezed a laugh then yelled at him because laughing hurt.

            He couldn’t remember being happier.

            “Hey Rye.” Ray said, rolling the two Advil’s Ryan had given him. They would stop that dull ache that was keeping him from sleeping.

            “Yes?” Ryan said from the door way. He slept on the couch. The apartment only had one bedroom. Since Ray was no longer in danger of dying in his sleep, he didn’t stay in the room. He didn’t think Ray needed to know.

            “How much longer until I can walk?” Ray said, curling his fingers around the full water glass on the night stand. “This is driving me nuts.”  
            Ryan pursed his lips, leaning against the doorway. His mask was back on, had been for most of the day. “I could carry you into the living room if that will help. You won’t be able to walk for a while, I’m afraid.”

            Ray groaned and let his head thud against the headboard. “I guess that works.” He sighed, tossing the pills into his mouth before chugging the water nearly too quickly.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and shook his head. Ray waved to him as he set the water down, already looking tired. Ryan closed the door quietly, smiling to himself.

            He trudged over to the couch and dropped onto the soft cushions. He pulled his mask off and set the skull on the empty coffee table. He laid back, his head on one headrest and his calves resting on the other, his feet dangling over the ground. His back would eventually begin to hate him, but for now he was fine.

            The next morning he stood at Ray’s bedside, shifting from foot to foot. Ray was smiling as awkwardly as he felt. “So uh. Neither of us like being touched.” Ray coughed, looking at his lap.

            Ryan didn’t care about Ray. He wanted to touch Ray, run his fingers through his hair, trace his jaw and cheek bone, hold his hand, and kiss his temple. To cuddle him close had been the major wish of his dreams for days. Of course, he understood why Ray wouldn’t want him even thinking about touching him.

            “I’ll be alright.” Ryan said carefully. He always spoke slowly, anything to keep from messing up his words. “As long as you will be, of course.”

            “I don’t really care.” Ray shrugged, smiling up at Ryan again. “If you’re alright, then pick me up, big guy.”

            Ryan laughed lightly, carefully slipping his hand under Ray’s thighs while his other arm went around his shoulders. He walked as evenly and gently as he could. He didn’t want to drop Ray or make his wounds hurt more. Ray held onto him with his good arm while the other stayed still against his chest.

            They got to the couch without incident. Ryan gently set Ray down, making sure he was comfortable before quickly stepping back. Ray shifted on the couch, sinking into the cushions. “You know, for being the Vagamuffon, you’re p-“ Ray stopped himself, jaw hanging open.

            Ryan went ridged, pressing his lips together as Ray looked up at him with wide eyes. “Wait, fuck!” Ray groaned pressing his palm into his forehead. “That was not what was supposed to come out.”

            Ryan snorted and burst out laughing. Ray groaned and fell back with his head on the head rest. He watched Ryan laugh, having to pull up his mask because the plastic was starting to sweat.

            “Shut up asshole.” Ray huffed, folding his arms. He was smiling as Ryan calmed down. “I think I’m going to call you that from now on.”

            “Vagamuffin? Really?” Ryan coughed on air. “That’s so bad.”

            “Better than stud muffin.” Ray said, shaking his head at himself. “You needed a new nickname.”

            “I don’t think I do.” Ryan said, dropping to the floor and leaning back against the couch. “What were you trying to say anyway?”

            “I was going to say that for being the _Vagabond_ ,” Ray said slowly, “you’re a pretty cute stud muffin. I think I got ahead of myself.” He sighed, running his hand through his hair. Ryan chuckled when Ray suddenly grinned at him. “It’s staying.”

            “Please don’t.” Ryan said, shaking his head. “Are you comfortable?”

            “I am, Vagamuffin.” Ray said, folding his arms awkwardly and smirking at Ryan.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and stood, shuffling toward the kitchen. “What do you want for breakfast?”

            “Pancakes, please!” Ray said, muffled by the couch. “Wait, you have an X-Box?!”

            Ryan laughed and started pulling out everything he would need for pancakes. He made them by hand like his mother showed him before she died. He was still grinning from Ray’s new pet name for him. Perhaps he could take his steps forward. Ray wouldn’t care. Each to their own.

            So Ryan talked. He told Ray the stories he knew and a few he made up. He told him about anything he was comfortable with. Ray didn’t interrupt, played his games like everything was normal, but he was listening. Sometimes Ryan caught him giving him looks of wonderment before getting a few head shots.

            When Ryan’s voice started to crack and he spoke so fast that he flubbed his words, Ray barely commented. Sometimes he would laugh good-naturedly then act like nothing had happened. By the time he finished talking, the sun was set and the moon as at the highest point in the sky.

            The controller was dangling from Ray’s fingers as he laughed tiredly. “You actually put a cow in a hole? I thought Geoff was joking!” He said, clutching his side as he laughed. “That’s fucking amazing!”

            Ryan chuckled, his throat hurt. He couldn’t remember the last time he talked to anyone but himself for that long. “I was bored.” He shrugged, staring at Ray’s hand as the controller slipped free and dropped to the carpet without making a sound.

            He reached out and took the controller, brushing Ray’s fingers as he set it on the coffee table. Ray didn’t flinch, probably didn’t even notice, but Ryan felt his heart race. Swallowing and wincing as the saliva went down stinging, he leaned back against the couch.

            “Okay, I have to ask.” Ray said, bring his hand up to rest on his chest. Ryan felt his heart go from pounding out of his chest to not moving at all. “What braid is that?”

            Ryan’s hand instinctively shot up to take the end of his braided hair between his fingers. His heart was pounding again. Of all things, that’s what Ray cared about? He was smiling before he even noticed. “My mother taught me.” He said, running his fingers over the neat strands. “When she got sick, she had a hard time doing it herself.”

            Ray nodded, reaching out before stopping himself. “Can you show me?” He said, pushing himself up instead.

            Ryan blinked at Ray who smiled at him sheepishly. “Why?” Ryan said, slowly smiling.

            “It’s pretty!” Ray huffed, folding his arms and wincing when he did so too roughly. “Shut up.”

            “You don’t have enough hair.” Ryan chuckled, shifting over to sit close enough anyway.

            “You do.” Ray mumbled, carefully reaching out again.

            Ryan nodded and didn’t even feel himself flinch when Ray’s thin fingers ran over his hair. He felt himself relax as Ray undid the braid and let his hair fall loose. The blond strands came to his shoulders, gently brushing his shirt.

            Ryan let Ray gather his waving hair back up again, carefully running his fingers through it to pull out the knots. Eventually, Ray whispered a soft, “okay.”

            Ryan nodded absently and explained how to do the braid. After all of these years, he still remembered his mother’s exact words. She made such a complicated braid sound so simple. Before long, Ray had braid his hair just as neatly as Ryan would have.

            Ryan didn’t move as he felt Ray stare at his hair. He bit back a smile when Ray untangled the braid and asked him to give the instructions again. By the fourth time, Ray already had the instructions memorized, but let Ryan say them anyway.

            An easy peace settled between them. Eventually, however, Ray tied off the braid with a rubber band and laid back down. “Thanks.” He slurred, grinning at Ryan with half-closed eyes. “Night, Vagamuffin.”

            Ryan rolled his eyes and stood as Ray giggled himself to sleep. Just as carefully as he had that morning, Ryan picked Ray up and carried him to the bed. Once Ray was tucked in, sleeping soundly with a smile on his face, Ryan slipped from the room and collapsed face first onto the couch. The man was going to be the death of him.

 

* * *

 

            By the end of the second month of their time in hiding, Geoff called them. They had been in the living room, Ray stretched out on the couch with Ryan sitting on the floor leaning against the cushions.

            They were playing a co-op match since Ryan kept losing in any game where he was against Ray. They both jumped when the phone rang. Ryan was the only one to reach for the knife he kept on him at all times.

            As the phone continued to ring, they both looked over the back of the couch at the kitchen. Ryan had left his phone there to charge for when Geoff tried to contact them.

            On the third ring, Ryan scrambled up and grabbed the phone. He answered then panicked. His throat closed and his heart stopped.

            “Ryan!” Ray called from the living room, holding his hand out over the back of the couch.

            Ryan opened his mouth then snapped it shut. He rushed over and thrust the phone into Ray’s hand. Without looking away from the phone, Ray grabbed his hand and Ryan felt himself begin to calm. Ray told Geoff to wait as he struggled to find the speakerphone button on the cell.

            Ryan slowly walked around the couch without letting go of Ray’s hand. He sat back down where his butt had imprinted the carpet. He held onto Ray’s hand, closing his eyes and listening to Ray curse. Since the night he had let Ray braid his hair a lot of hand holding and fingers running through hair happened between them, on both sides.

            “There!” Ray nearly growled, dropping the phone onto his chest with a hollow thud. “Sorry Geoff.”

            “About fucking time.” Geoff huffed, voice crackling over the phone. “Glad to hear you’re fucking alive.”

            “I’ll be good in, what, two more months?” Ray snorted, looking at Ryan. He smiled at him when he nodded. “Rye’s taken care of me.”

            “I would hope so.” Geoff grumbled, doors opening and closing in the background. “Listen, we’re safe to come out now. Have Ryan bring you to the penthouse.”

            “Nope.” Ray said before Ryan could even begin to feel the loss of their time together. “I’m not going to the penthouse to have Michael and Gavin re-break my leg.”

            Geoff snorted and laughed as Ryan squeezed Ray’s hand and he squeezed back. “Fine, just stay safe. I want to visit just to make sure you’re fine.”

            “I’m fine.” Ray groaned, running his thumb over Ryan’s knuckles when he tensed. “Just update us when you see the others.”   

            “I will.” Geoff said before hanging up. Neither of them moved for a long moment before Ray carefully pushed himself up and ran his fingers over Ryan’s braid. Ryan instantly let go of his hand and leaned into his fingers as he untangled his hair.

            “Hey Rye.” Ray said softly as he began the braid. “Are you okay?”

            “Yeah, I just like this.” Ryan said, closing his eyes. “The others are so loud.”

            “I know.” Ray chuckled, finishing the braid just to untangle it again. “But they’re family.”

            “Eeeeeeh.” Ryan said, smiling when Ray snorted at him. He could almost see the eye roll. “They are.”

            “That’s what I thought.” Ray said, starting the braid again.

            They were silent for a long moment, Ray braiding and untangling Ryan’s hair over and over again. They both felt the peace, the emptiness of their loud minds. “Ray?” Ryan whispered, almost afraid to break the silence.

            “Yeah?” Ray whispered back just as softly.

            “Why don’t you ask?” Ryan said, opening his eyes as Ray’s fingers stilled for only a moment.

            “Ask what?” Ray said, focusing on Ryan’s hair.

            “Why don’t you ask me why?” Ryan pressed, pulling his knees to his chest.

            “Because it doesn’t matter.” Ray said, tying off Ryan’s hair before leaning down to look Ryan in the eyes, even if he was upside down. “It matters to you, of course, but if you don’t want to talk about it, then whatever. I don’t need to know that badly.”

            Ryan laughed wetly, reaching out and running his fingers over Ray’s cheekbones. “I think I love you.” He said nearly too softly.

            Ray’s eyes widened for a moment before he grinned and surged forward. Ryan’s eyes crossed trying to follow Ray as he pressed a kiss on his nose. He laughed as Ray disappeared and he turned to follow.

            “I think I love you too.” Ray said sheepishly, trying to hide in the hoodie Ryan had let him wear. He swam in it and now he was trying to hide in it. He just about killed Ryan’s heart.

            Ryan grinned and pulled himself up onto the couch, gently moving Ray against the back cushion so he would have room to sit. Ray watched him with warm cheeks as he reached up and traced every curve and dip of his face.

            Hesitantly reaching out, hand hidden in the sleeves of the hoodie, Ray wrapped his arm around Ryan’s shoulders and pulled him closer until their noses touched.

            Their breath mixed as they took in each other’s eyes. Blue and brown got lost in each other as noses slid and lips met in a soft kiss. Ryan’s eyes fluttered closed while Ray watched him.

            When they parted, Ryan cupped Ray’s cheek and pressed their foreheads together. They were both smiling like idiots, Ray watched every inch of Ryan’s face as he slowly opened his eyes and looked at him like he was the moon and stars.

            “Geoff’s going to kill me.” Ray breathed a laugh after a moment. “I’m dating the Vagamuffin.”

            Ryan pressed his lips together and took a deep breath as Ray giggled and fell back against the couch. Ryan watched him laugh, covered hand over his lips and brown eyes dancing. This was it, this was everything he needed in life. A very cute, wonderful, handsome, caring, asshole of a man was giggling at him, looking only at him and he felt his heart beat right out of his chest and fall into Ray’s safe hands.


	3. Single Dads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They had promised they would keep them together, then suddenly Rosa was ripped from James's tiny arms and he was taken into a car. He never got over the feeling of having his only family taken from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!

            Rosa was so young that she couldn’t remember, but James did. Even as he grew older and the memory faded, he would always remember what happened to them. From being born to running away with his baby sister to the first police station he found, all he knew was fear, hatred, and pain. He didn’t want that for Rosa.

            They had promised they would keep them together, then suddenly Rosa was ripped from his tiny arms and he was taken into a car. He never got over the feeling of having his only family taken from him. They told him that because she was a baby they would be separated, only for now.

            Two years after entering foster care, he was five and still asked his foster parents about Rosa every day. Finally, on his birthday, they brought her home. She didn’t really know him, but he knew her, told her. She believed him because she was two and knew his eyes.

            They only had a year. James stopped trusting the system when they were put into different cars and no one told him anything. He ran away when they gave him knew foster parents in New York. He had to go back, had to find Rosa. No one kept promises.

            New York, he learned very quickly, was not safe for anyone. Not when the sun came down and the street lights blinked on. Alleyways ooze darkness while glowing yellow eyes twitched as they followed him.

            No taxi would take him and no adult could be trusted, so he walked. He would walk all the way back to Texas, even if he almost died doing so. Of course, when he made that resolve, he didn’t think he’d be yanked into an alleyway, grimy arms tight around his waist.

            He struggled and bit foul flesh, but the woman wouldn’t let go. She rambled on about finally having her son. That he was so big for just leaving the womb. He was six and he knew she was insane.

            He kicked his legs and refused to cry. Shouting anything that would make anyone come help him, he punched her jaw and pulled at her hair, she didn’t seem to notice until a figure loomed at the mouth of the alley.

            She dropped him and rushed for the figure, grabbing the bag they threw at her. He scrambled to get out of the way when she rushed past, little flecks of green drifting after her. Then the figure came beside him, crouching down and smiling.

            The man had a short beard and bright brown eyes. His skin was tan but pale and he looked thin under his purple hoodie. He offered James his hand, offered him home. They didn’t move, James not wanting to take his hand and the man not wanting to leave a six year old out on his own.

            “I’m Ray.” The man had said eventually, smile gentle and encouraging. “I’m not going to hurt you. I remember running around on the streets when I was five. It sucks.”

            James was tired. He wanted his sister, he wanted to have a nice home where they wouldn’t be harassed for being orphans or separated for some unknown reason. He wanted parents that cared and maybe a cat.

            Reaching out hesitantly, he took Ray’s hand. “I’m James.” He said softly, letting Ray help him to his feet and walk him out of the alleyway.

            “Nice to meet you, James.” Ray grinned down at him, walking slowly so he matched James’s short stride. “Do you have a home at all?”

            James scowled and shook his head. Clinging to Ray’s hand. He felt safe. He felt like home, somehow. He was a guarded kid, however. He told Ray he wanted to go to Texas and he took him there. Told him he wanted to find his sister, so he helped try and find her. Told Ray he was tired and was given a bed, new clothes, and a home. They never found Rosa, but he had something. He had hope, even if he tried not to open up or warm up to Ray for three years. He didn’t even call him Papa for four years after meeting.

 

* * *

 

            Rosa didn’t understand much. Her first memory was of a woman bouncing her to sleep when she woke up to a nightmare where monsters were trying to burn her. Before the nurse came, a boy had shouted and tried to fight away the monsters, getting burned instead. Somehow that was worse than getting burned herself.

            When she was two, they took her from the white walled facility, the only place she had ever known, and to a small house bursting with other kids. She was introduced to the boy in her dream, which always haunted her, but he was older now, tired. His eyes were the same though. A burning brown that comforted her when she cried.

            She hugged him as he cried. He knew her name and told her that he was her brother. She believed him, not because she was two, but because she knew. She knew him, knew he had helped her somehow. Knew he was the reason she was there at all. She wasn’t dumb.

            They only had a year. She only had a year to memorize tired smiles and tight hugs that kept her safe. Only a year before they were ripped apart again and she was taken to Georgia.

            Her foster family was mean. They yelled, they hit each other, but never her. She hated the yelling, hated the noise of skin hitting skin. She was four when she ran away. They were in the middle of fighting and didn’t even notice.

            She left with a backpack of candy and food. She also had a knife. The blade was bigger than her and the handle was too heavy for her to lift, but she believed the knife made her look scary.

            She passed through a busy city, spending the day waiting on a bench until the crowds cleared so she could actually see where she was going. When the sun went down and the street lights glowed, she shuffled through the city, offering candy and food to anyone slouched in an alleyway.

            One man pointed her to the bus station, another woman gave her just enough to buy a bus ticket. As she passed an alleyway, a muffled scream echoed from the darkness. She watched as a tall figure held onto the throat of another. She watched as someone was strangled, flailing their limbs before slowly falling limp. She watched a tall man with a skull mask drop the body and couch to search through pockets.

            “That wasn’t nice.” Rosa said, hands on her hips. “What did he do?”

            The skull’s eyes snapped to her and froze. Blue eyes were wide behind the mask, hands hovering over the body. “H-how old are you?” The man said, carefully pulling some papers from the dead man’s pockets.

            “Four!” Rosa said, puffing up her chest and smiling. “I’m going to Texas!”

            The skull stared at her, slipping the paper into his pocket, before laughing lightly. “And why is that?” He said, standing and walking over to her. He crouched down, glancing at the knife Rosa clung to tightly, before looking her in the eyes.

            “I think that’s where my brother is.” Rosa frowned, looking at her feet. “They separated us.”

            The skull didn’t speak and when Rosa looked back up at him, he looked horribly sad. Very slowly, he reached up and pulled his mask off. Long blond hair was tied back with a rubber band and stubble scratched as the mask slipped past.

            “Texas is a really far place to go on your own.” The man said, stuffing the mask into his back pocket. “Do you want some help getting there?”

            Rosa frowned and folded her arms, careful of the knife. “Are you going to hurt me?”

            “No.” The man said, shaking his head. “I’ll keep you safe.” He smiled and Rosa relaxed. He looked like James did when he smiled.

            “Okay.” Rosa said softly, holding her hand out to the man. “I’m Rosa!”

            “I’m Ryan.” The man chuckled, taking her hand and standing. He had to stoop to keep their hands connected as he walked them to his car, Rosa talking his ear off about her brother, foster parents, and dreams.

            When they got to Texas, James wasn’t there and when they followed his trail to New York he wasn’t there either. He had disappeared as much as Ryan tried to make Rosa disappear.

            As they sat in the private plan Ryan had stolen, Rosa looked at her hands in her lap and sniffed. Ryan frowned and put the plane on auto-pilot.

            “We’ll keep looking.” Ryan said softly, kneeling next to Rosa who was too small for the co-pilot chair.

            Rosa smiled at Ryan, wiping her eyes with a tiny fist. “Can I stay with you?” She said, eyes watering again already.

            “Of course.” Ryan said softly, laughing lightly when Rosa hugged him tightly.

            “Thank you, Dad.” Rosa said softly, clinging to Ryan tightly as he froze, eyes wide.

            Ryan slowly relaxed, smiling to himself. Him, a father. He could do that. He could do that for Rosa.

           

* * *

 

            Ray frowned down at the business card in his hand. He had found the card in his jacket pocket with no memory of seeing it before. He turned the card over in his hand, leaning against the stop sign at the junction where James’s bus would drop him off.

            Geoffrey Ramsey was a cunning man with big bucks and bigger ambitions. Why would he need Ray? All he knew was that Ramsey was starting a crew out in Los Santos.

            Ray heard the roar of the bus and puffed a sigh. Stuffing the card back into his pocket, he looked up and watched the bus pull to a stop in front of him. He smiled at the bus driver who scowled back.

            James carefully jogged down the stairs, giving Ray a bright smile for only a moment before taking his hand. The bus drove off as they turned and walked towards home.

            “How was school?” Ray said, squeezing James’s hand.

            “Gross.” James shrugged, squeezing Ray’s hand as best as he could. “It’s boring because I’ve already read everything.”

            Ray chuckled, James’s library of a room flashing in his mind. “I’m not surprised. Just wait for Middle School, kiddo.”

            “That’s a year away!” James groaned, leaning against Ray’s leg for a moment. “I won’t survive fifth grade!”

            Ray laughed and ruffled James’s hair with his free hand. “You’ll be fine. You’ve gotta show everyone else up.”

            “I don’t mind that, but they make it too easy.” James huffed, pouting slightly.

            “You’re just too freaking awesome.” Ray shook his head, smiling when James looked up at him with sparkling eyes.

            “Can I come with you to work today?” James said softly, eyes darting around for only a moment before focusing on Ray again.

            Ray leaned down so that James could hear him whisper. “Do you have homework?”

            “Finished it in class.” James whispered back, raising his free hand to cover his mouth.

            “Then of course you can.” Ray grinned, smiling when James cheered softly. Shaking his head, he forgot about the card in his pocket and wouldn’t remember for two years until his new burner cell rang.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan had burned the card the instant he found the black card stalk in his pocket. If Geoff wanted to reach him, he’d call like he normally did.

            Leaning against his sleek black car, he reached up and made sure he didn’t still have his mask on. His fingers met blond hair, but he still couldn’t relax. The other parents were staring at him again.

            Taking a deep, shaking breath, he looked at the school when the doors burst open and kids flooded out onto the sidewalk. Ryan smiled when he could see Rosa in the crowd, although she was slightly shorter than everyone else.

            “Dad!” Rosa gasped, smiling brightly at him before rushing over and crashing into his legs. “Look at what I made!”

            Ryan gently took the painted paper held out to him. He felt laughter bubble in his throat as he realized Rosa had painted the day they met, right down to the dead body. “It’s beautiful sweetie.” He said, looking over the page at Rosa.

            “The teacher didn’t think so.” Rosa pouted, reaching up for the paper. Ryan crouched and held the paper between them. “She asked if you were imaginary.” She pointed to her crud drawing of Ryan.

            “What did you say?” Ryan said, smiling at his daughter. She folded her arms and puffed up her chest.

            “I told her you were the monster under my bed and that we have tea parties.” Rosa said, grinning defiantly.

            Ryan laughed and hugged Rosa tightly before handing the paper back to her. Taking her hand, he turned to his car and opened up the backseat. “What did she say to that?”

            “She looked really scared!” Rosa giggled, letting Ryan pick her up and settle her into the car seat. “It was funny.”

            “The tea party was a good addition.” Ryan nodded, buckling Rosa in after setting her backpack beside her.

            “I know!” Rosa laughed, wiggling in her seat. “I hate tea.”

            Ryan shook his head and kissed Rosa’s head. She told him all about her day and how boring classes were as he drove home. She was already on fifth grade material although a little behind in math. Once they got home, he sat beside her and helped her through her math problems before allowing for an hour of video game time.

            He forgot about Geoff entirely. He wouldn’t remember until his private phone rang two years later.

           

* * *

 

            Geoff wanted to make a crew powerful enough to strike fear in the world. He’d fill the group with a mixture of the best of the best. Some of the strangest people in the world who needed the home.

            Jack was easy, they were already a team. Gavin was as easy as paying for his plane ticket to the states. Michael had been stubborn, but Geoff had sent Gavin and the Brit had Michael following after him like a puppy. A very angry, biting puppy.

            Jeremy was a good kid, jack of all trades. If Geoff wanted him, he got Matt as well, but they were both valuable and smart. The day he arrived, he had already pickpocketed all of them and handed back their things with a sheepish grin. BrownMan first. BrownMan was a household name and the best sniper in the world. He was hard to find, but he had apparently settled down for a few years. Geoff sent Jeremy with the express instructions not to interact, just make sure his business card ended up in BrownMan’s procession.

            When Jeremy called him to tell him BrownMan had his card, he sat by his phone and waited. He had Jeremy go out to see Vagabond while he did. Vagabond had been his associate once, but had long since gone solo. They would need him if this crew was going to work.

            With both cards dropped off and Jeremy back home, Geoff waited for the calls for two years. He knew he couldn’t rush these two. He had the rest of the crew do what they wanted, as long as they came home.

            Eventually, Geoff just called Vagabond. He probably burned the card anyway.

            “Geoff.” Vagabond huffed over the phone after the third ring. “Surprised you waited for so long.” His voice was distorted, much higher than Geoff suspected it to be. Vagabond liked his privacy to an extreme extent.

            “I know you.” Geoff snorted, setting his glass of whisky on the counter. “I want you to join a crew I’m making.”

            “Why?” Vagabond said, rustling in the background then static for only a moment. “I’m a danger to crews, you know that.”

            “You’ll like this one.” Geoff pressed, picking up his glass and spinning the bottom edge against the counter. “I promise.”

            “And if I don’t?” Vagabond said without hesitation.

            “We all know the answer to that.” Geoff sighed, setting the glass down again. “It’ll be worth it, trust me.”

            There was just static for a long moment, but Geoff knew Vagabond was still there. “Alright. I’ll think about it.” The voice modifier squeaked out.

            “And you’ll let me know?” Geoff tried not to sound hopeful, but he knew better.

            “You’ll know.” Vagabond said before the line went dead.

            Geoff groaned and dropped his phone onto the counter. At least he had Vagabond, kind of. Now if only he could figure out how to get ahold of BrownMan.

            Three days later, Gavin had his answer. He proudly dropped his computer in font of Geoff, obnoxious golden sunglasses on his nose. Geoff blinked slowly at the screen before grinning wildly.

            “Well fucking done, asshole.” Geoff laughed, pulling out his phone and plugging in the number.

            Gavin opened his mouth to speak, but Michael threw a pillow at him while Jeremy and Matt leaned against each other laughing. Gavin squawked and tackled Michael to the couch.

            Geoff ignored them, grinning at the counter as the phone rang. Before the end of the forth ring, there was a click. “BrownMan.” A bored, tired voice said.

            “You’re hard to reach.” Geoff smirked, turning away from the mess in the living room to go to his alcohol cupboard.

            “By design.” BrownMan said slowly, the background was eerily silent.

            “Right, well. I’m sure you remember my card?” Geoff said, looking through the various half-full glass bottles of whisky he had stored away.

            “Vaguely.” BrownMan said, sighing into the receiver. “What do you want? Must be important if you went through all of the effort to get my number.”

            “I’m making a crew.” Geoff said, having picked a whisky and struggle to remove the cap with only one hand.

            “I know.” BrownMan sounded bored which didn’t bode well. He’d ditch this phone and then the entire process would have to start over again.

            “Of course you do, but here’s the point. I want you to join.” Geoff said quickly, giving up on the whisky for now.

            BrownMan hummed then was silent for a long moment. “I’ll consider it.” He said eventually.

            Geoff let out the breath he had been holding for far too long with a relieved sigh. “Great. You’ll let me know?”

            The click and tone of BrownMan hanging up was his only answer. Geoff scowled at his phone before stuffing the device into his pocket. He already had a headache.

 

* * *

 

            “We’re moving?” Rosa said, tilting her head at Ryan. “Why?”

            “An old friend of mine is offering me a job.” Ryan said carefully, looking around Rosa’s room then down at the small box in his hands. “So we’re going to move to where he is.”

            Rosa frowned, looking at the box in Ryan’s hands from her bed. Ryan looked up at her, eyes sad. Her room was just how she wanted it, full of things of various colors and things she and Ryan had made. A knife throwing set hung from her wall while colorful pictures of flowers covered a small desk.

            “Okay.” Rosa said cheerfully, slipping off of her bed. “Can you help me?”  
            Ryan smiled and kneeled down, setting the box aside and hugging Rosa tightly. She hugged him back, eventually braiding his hair when the hug took longer than they were expecting.

            “Okay.” Ryan sighed, letting go and grabbing the box again. “I’m so sorry.”

            “It’s okay.” Rosa smiled, looking around her room before going over to her desk. “My next room will better!”

            “Yes, it will.” Ryan smiled after her. He helped her chose what would stay and what would go. By the end, she only had two boxes, one slightly larger than the other. Rosa kept smiling, leaving somethings Ryan knew she cared about behind. He didn’t want to do this to her, but a crew could be security. More hands and eyes, someone who could actually go after him if he disappeared.

            “Are we going to fly?” Rosa said, turning on her heels and looking up at Ryan with wide eyes.

            “Yeah we are.” Ryan nodded, picking up Rosa’s boxes, his duffle back already on his shoulder.

            “Yay!” Rosa squealed, rushing toward the door.

            Ryan laughed and followed. He used the last of his connections in the city to make sure a plane was waiting for them at an abandoned airfield. After dropping their things into the passenger seats, he slipped into the cockpit and started up the plane.

            Rosa trailed after him, climbing up onto his lap and carefully listening as he explained what he was doing. “Look at the clouds!” She gasped as they slipped through white fluff and began to level out.

            “They’re pretty.” Ryan nodded, putting on the auto-pilot. Once he let go of the controls, Rosa stared at him wide eyed.

            “How does the plane fly itself?” Rosa asked, grabbing his hands once they were within her reach.

            As Ryan explained, Rosa ran her fingers over his hands, bending joints and brushing away flakes of dried skin and blood. When he finished, he looked down at her and grinned as she gave him a dazed look.

            “How about a story?” Ryan glanced around them, eyes settling on a strangely shaped cloud. “See that cloud?” He said, pointing to the misshaped mound of white.

            Rosa nodded quickly, smiling brightly. “It looks like a dragon!” She said, nearly bouncing.

            “That’s because it is.” Ryan said in a whisper, chuckling when Rosa giggled.

            “It’s a big dragon! Who breathes fire!” Rosa said, eyes glazing over as a story created itself in her head. Ryan dutifully listened, gasping at the dramatic reveals and faking pain at the horrible deaths.

            Rosa drifted off when the sky turned dark and when the story was only halfway over. Ryan smiled at her, setting her in the co-pilot’s seat and turning off the auto-pilot.

           

* * *

 

            “Ready, kiddo?” Ray said, backpack already on his shoulders.

            “Yep!” James smiled from the kitchen counter, his own backpack sitting beside him. Neither of them had much. James was picky with what he became attached to despite how filled his room was.

            Ray’s backpack was twice its normal size, filled mainly with games. James’s bag mainly had the books he couldn’t bear to part with. Their clothes were already a duffle bag in the car. They didn’t care about much else.

            “Alright, let’s get going then.” Ray said, offering James his hand.

            James hopped off of the counter, grabbing Ray’s hand tightly. They both had hidden weapons, James with a small pistol and a few knives, Ray mainly with just guns. They left their apartment leaving no trace of their existence minus the furniture.

            They didn’t tell the landlord they were leaving, sneaking past his desk when his back was turned. Stealing a plane was comically easy. As they rolled down the tarmac, James gave Ray instructions on how to fly the plane by memory.

            “Hey Papa.” James said once they were in the air and a short silence had passed between them.

            “What’s up?” Ray said, flipping on the auto-pilot before turning to look at James.

            “Where are we going?” James said, pulling at the sleeve of his shirt. “You didn’t say.”

            “Los Santos.” Ray leaned forward to ruffle James’s blond hair, smiling when he laughed and swatted at his hands. “I’m joining a crew.”

            “A crew?” James suddenly frowned, fingers curling into fists.

            “Yeah, I know all about them. I’ve worked with Michael before.” Ray glanced out the window, watching clouds and sky pass under them. “They’re an interesting bunch.”

            “But, won’t that be more dangerous?” James said slowly, reaching out for Ray’s hand.

            Ray took James’s hand in both of his. “I trust Michael to watch my back and if a crew is good, then it’s a lot safer.”

            “If.” James nearly spat, clinging to Ray’s fingers.

            “If.” Ray nodded, smiling at James. “But I do trust these guys. At least, I’m sure I will. And if not, we’ll do what we always do.”

            “Fuck them over?” James tilted his head with a crooked smile.

            “Exactly.” Ray laughed, ruffling James’s hair again before leaning back against his seat, their hands between them. “But no swearing.”

            “You swear all of the time!” James groaned, gently swinging their hands.

            “Doesn’t mean you get to, yet.” Ray grinned when James pouted at him. “Once you start you don’t stop.”      

            “Nuh huh!” James huffed, sticking his tongue out at Ray.

            “Oh, are we going there?” Ray smirked and James puffed up his chest.

            “Yes.” James said, narrowing his eyes. He gasped and squealed when Ray pulled him to his side, tickling his stomach and armpits until he was red faced and pouting.

            “Get some sleep, kiddo.” Ray laughed, letting James go. “It’s going to be a long ride.”

            “No, I want to stay up.” James huffed, pulling himself back onto his seat. “Can you read?”

            “Sure.” Ray held out his hand and James placed a physics book in his hand. Ray stared at the title for a moment before shaking his head. “No laughing when I can’t pronounce things.”  
            “No promises!” James laughed, shifting in his seat to watch Ray, knees to his chest.

            Ray rolled his eyes and opened the book to the string James used to mark his page. Not even half a page in and James was fast asleep. Ray smiled over the edge of the book, quietly closing heavy pages.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan arrived to the apartment behind another car. He frowned as a short man with tree bark eyes and messy black hair stepped out of a small brown car. Their eyes met as he slipped off of his motorcycle.

            The man looked him dead in the eyes and smirked. “Vagabond? Here to work with Ramsey again?” He said, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his purple hoodie.

            Ryan narrowed his eyes and nodded. He didn’t know this kid, but he must be one of Geoff’s informants. The man raised an eyebrow then shrugged, heading toward the building.

            Ryan sighed and followed after him. He had an apartment to unpack and an excited third grader bouncing around a new school. He hoped this meeting didn’t take too long.

            He followed the man through the building and rode the elevator up with him. He slouched and yawned, looking around tiredly. Weird kid, must be why Geoff used him. He had a soft spot for strange strays.

            When they got to the top floor of the building, the man hesitated just outside of the closing elevator doors. “So, this is where my knowledge ends. I’m hoping you know where Ramsey’s place is?” He said, looking at Ryan.

            Ryan blinked slowly at the man. He shook his head slowly. “Oh great.” The man groaned, folding his arms. “You walked like you knew the place!”

            Ryan shrugged and pointed at the man, rolling his eyes. “I’m not some informant, asshole. Ramsey called me here too.” The man huffed, turning away and looking at the doors.

            Ryan followed after him when he turned a corner and started to laugh. Over the man’s shoulder, he saw one of the heavy wooden doors badly attached to the hinges with paint and long scratches ruining the finish.

            “Found it.” The man snorted, heading for the door.

            Ryan held back a chuckle, following the man and watching him knock. They both watched the door wobble under the man’s hand, both tensed, ready to move if the heavy wood decided to fall.

            The door swung open before that could happen, Geoff grinning at them on the other side. “Glad you could join us!” He smirked, standing aside. “Welcome to hell.”

            “Thanks.” The man chuckled, slipping into the apartment. His feet never made a sound.

            Ryan nodded at Geoff who sighed at him. “Still doing the silent treatment?” Geoff said, shaking his head when Ryan nodded again. “Alright, whatever. Go into the living room while I gather up the other idiots.”

            Ryan and the man nodded, wondering into the living room. The place was a mess, pillows, weapons, and papers were thrown about, covering the couch, coffee table, and floor. The man picked his way through the mess, snorting at the sheer amount of beer bottles everywhere.

            “I hope I don’t regret this.” The man mumbled, just catching Ryan’s nod of agreement. He smirked at him and stuffed his hands into his pockets again. “I hope we get along, Vagabond. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

            Ryan snorted, glaring at the hand held out to him. He looked up at the man who just shrugged. Looking at the offered hand again, he sighed. He had to get along with these people at some point. Had he been Rosa, he would have already introduced himself and talked this man’s ear off.

            Smiling to himself, he took the man’s hand in one shake before letting go quickly. “Nice smile.” The man said, slipping his hand into his pocket. He grinned when Ryan tensed and stared at him wide eyed. “Not many people look you in the mask?”  
            Ryan shook his head slowly. Of course people didn’t look him in the face, especially if the skull was going to be the last thing they saw. The only other person to look him in the face was Rosa.

            “They miss out on a lot.” The man shrugged. He turned away at the squawk of a strange bird before looking at Ryan again when he heard him grunt in annoyance. “Oh right, I’m BrownMan.”

            Ryan froze and looked at the man, taking in his stature and bored face again. He snorted a chuckle and nodded. The famous BrownMan was not someone to get into trouble with. He will end someone not only in this life, but the next. He was a scary man, Ryan was slightly upset that their paths didn’t cross until now.

            “Always hoped I’d meet you.” BrownMan said, looking at the men trickling into the room. “I figured we’d be good friends.”

            Ryan snorted again and made sure Ray saw the smile in his eyes that time. BrownMan laughed and shook his head, ignoring the strange looks they were getting from everyone entering the room, especially Geoff’s.

            Frowning at them, Geoff came over and stood next to them. “Right, well. Here’s the last two members of our crew.”

            One of the shorter men with curly hair and a scowl, stood and came over to BrownMan. Ryan frowned as they stared at each other with unchanging expressions before suddenly breaking out into smiles.

            “Ray! You fucking asshole!” The man laughed, wrapping BrownMan in a crushing hug. “It’s been fucking ages!”

            “You know him?” A tall, big man with a beard said, rolling his eyes when Geoff’s jaw dropped.

            “Of course I know him!” The man snorted, letting Ray go and turning back toward the crew. “Couldn’t get a hold of him, but know him. We worked together back in New York.” His head suddenly snapped toward Ray, eyes narrowed. “Until he suddenly pissed off one day.”

            Ray shrugged, giving the man a sheepish smile. “Shit happens, man. Good to see you though.”

            The man snorted and wrapped his arm around Ray’s shoulder. “Well, now that you’re here, we finally have someone with skill!”

            “I was hoping all of you had skills.” Ray frowned, nudging the man’s side.

            “He means at video games.” The other short man said, snickering at a tall man with a large nose. “Gavin sucks.”

            “I do not!” The tall man squawked, pouting at all of them. “Tell them Micoo!”

            “You fucking suck.” The man hugging Ray laughed. He pulled Ray toward the two men as Geoff came to stand beside Ryan.

            “That’s Michael.” Geoff said, pointing to ‘Micoo’. “And that’s Gavin. They’re a thing, and disgusting.” He pointed to the tall man who squawked like a bird. “Then there’s Jeremy and Jack.”

            Ryan tried to remember everyone’s name, looking from the bearded man to the shortest man. Michael and Gavin were easy, they were annoying. Ray already fit right in with all of them, laughing at some story being told. Ryan’s skin itched under his mask.

            “You’ll fit in.” Geoff said, smacking Ryan’s shoulder. “Eventually.”

            Ryan took a deep breath and nodded. Geoff walked over to the others, laughing and joining in on their conversation. Ryan stayed still. Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea. He wasn’t good with people. He didn’t like talking to them or interacting with them.

            Pulling out his phone, he glanced at the time. Three hours until he needed to pick up Rosa. Great. Shoving his phone back into his pocket, he looked up and brown met blue. Ray grinned at him, untangling himself from Michael and offering Ryan his hand.

            “Come on, we’re playing Halo and I want to whoop everyone’s ass.” Ray said when Ryan just stared at his hand. “Yours included, big guy.”

            Ryan felt himself smile, taking Ray’s hand and letting him pull him to the couch. He ignored the strange looks Geoff was giving him. Ray reminded him of Rosa, offering him his hand, letting him hold on for a life line. This was familiar, sold ground, even if Ray wasn’t his daughter.

 

* * *

 

            Vagabond reminded Ray of James with a skull mask. Even the way their eyes smiled was similar. Like someone who had seen some shit but could smile anyway. He even held onto his hand like James did, like he was the ground.

            He was, kind of cute. Even as they played games and Vagabond eventually let go of his hand, Ray realized that he was just a really big kid. His eyes would get big when he got excited, he would shift in his seat and laugh quietly under his breath.

            Ray smiled and relaxed. This was good. He liked the crew, they seemed to like him. This was perfect, just what he needed. A crew to make his survival rating go up. He had to be there for James. Couldn’t leave him alone like everyone else had.

            Thirty minutes before the middle school let out, Ray managed to untangle himself from everyone. They all insisted that he didn’t have to go, but he really did. He pacified them with his desire to just wonder around town alone.

            “Take Vagabond with you then.” Geoff shrugged from the other end of the couch. “You’re both going to want to know the city inside and out.”

            Ray looked down at Vagabond who shrugged and stood. They left the penthouse as the others got back to their games. At their vehicles, Ray paused and turned to look at Vagabond. “I’m not too big on group trips.”

            Vagabond nodded and shrugged. He walked past Ray and got onto his bike, speeding away in the other direction of the school. Ray sighed and smiled. “Weirdo.” He mumbled, slipping into his car and heading for the middle school.

 

* * *

 

            There was a schedule. The entire crew noticed. Ray and Vagabond would appear around the same time, early in the morning. They would let themselves in and play games or have one-sided conversations waiting for the others to wake up from whatever drunken stupor they had gotten themselves into.

            When the others gathered together, they would eat breakfast and lunch with them (alright, brunch) then listen to stories or help plan their first big heist or smaller ones. Then, Ray would leave first around two and then, an hour later, Vagabond would leave. Once they were out the door, the crew didn’t hear from them until the next morning.

            “I just want to know what you do!” Gavin whined, laying across Ray’s lap. “X-Raaaaaay!”

            Ray sighed and tried not to rub his temples. Gavin had been asking him and Vagabond since he woke up what they did when they left. Apparently telling him that he was making an information empire wasn’t enough. At least that was better than Vagabond’s amused shrug.

            They had been part of the crew for weeks now, bonding in the mornings. If anything, Ray would say Vagabond was his favorite. Which wasn’t just because he was kind of funny and awesome when the others were sleeping and the two of them were alone and he would talk in a low voice as if the others would hear him no matter what volume his voice was. He liked him because he didn’t ask questions, just nodded and went with it.

            “Vav, please.” Ray groaned, pushing Gavin off. “I don’t do anything exciting.”

            “I just want to know!” Gavin pouted up at him.

            Ray scowled, opening his mouth to tell Gavin to go bother Michael or _something_ , when Michael walked in holding his head and groaning. Ray relaxed as Gavin gasped and ran over to Michael, talking way too loud.

            Ray rolled his eyes and sunk into the couch. He was already exhausted and he still had a parent teacher conference to sit through. Apparently James was struggling with a class, which was bullshit. James was extremely intelligent, years ahead of his peers. The conference was just with this teacher James swore up and down hated him. Ray already believed him.

            Ray jumped when there was a gentle pat on his shoulder. Looking up, he smiled at Vagabond and leaned so their shoulders were pressed together. “It’s going to be a long day.”  
            Vagabond nodded solemnly and Ray couldn’t help but laugh. Unfortunately, that started Gavin’s usually string of questions asking how he and Vagabond shared jokes if Vagabond didn’t even make any sounds.

            Ray groaned loud enough for both of them, feeling Vagabond’s rumble through him silently. Michael eventually shuffled over, grabbed Gavin by his collar, and pulled him away. He waved away Ray’s thankful look with a tired one and lazy hand wave.

            Right on time, Ray stood from their unproductive heist meeting and slipped away. Vagabond watched him go, distracting Geoff when he noticed. Ray smiled and shook his head before sighing and preparing himself for some bullshit at the school.

           

* * *

 

            Ryan had never interacted with a more functioning dysfunctional group before. He was amazed that they had any planning done at all for their heist. As Gavin and Michael made a mess of things, Jack deep sighed and kept Geoff calm while Jeremy laughed and joined into the mess.

            Ray kept him entertained with witty remarks and bored faces. This wasn’t the first time Ray had to slip away during a meeting, so, like natural, Ryan distracted Geoff for him. Nothing productive would be done today and if there was something, he would just tell Ray tomorrow morning.

            They had given up on the meeting entirely by the time Ryan had to leave. Michael had tackled Gavin, taking Jeremy down with them and tripping Geoff when he went to yell. When he left, they were all laughing as Jack pulled them apart with a fond grin.

            As he drove to the elementary school, he pulled off his mask and tossed the skull onto the backseat. The school was right next to the middle school which was deserted by the time he arrived.

            Instead of parking in the parent-packed elementary lot, he parked next to the only car in the middle school one. As he shifted gears, he looked at the car, narrowing his eyes.

            He’d know that small, brown car anywhere. What was Ray doing here? Ryan’s heart tensed, not relaxing when he realize the car was empty. He didn’t want to assume Ray would ever hurt a kid, but the years Ryan had spent terrified that someone would harm or take Rosa hung over his head.

            He could barely breathe when the elementary school bell rang. Stepping out of his car, he watched the kids pour from the school and run for cars or busses. He strained his eyes for a familiar head of brown hair, heart pounding.

            He tried to look calm, tried to breath, especially when he saw Rosa at the same time she saw him. His smile was genuine when she waved excitedly at him, rushing across the road to the middle school lot.

            “Dad!” Rosa laughed, hugging Ryan tightly like she normally did. She was fine, he was fine. Nothing was wrong.

“Hey, sweetheart.” Ryan sighed, hugging Rosa back. “How was school?”

“Really cool! We had an assembly so I missed math.” Rosa grinned up at him, laughing when Ryan made a show of rolling his eyes.

            “You’re doing better.” Ryan said, leaning against his car. Rosa stood next to him, holding onto his hand without him needing to ask. They usually waited for the parking lot to clear.

            “I know, doesn’t mean I like it.” Rosa huffed, scrunching up her face.

            Ryan laughed and relaxed. All thoughts of Ray left his head. “Well, how about we go out to eat tonight? I heard of a diner with really good pie.”

            “Pie?!” Rosa gasped, smiling brightly up at Ryan. “Let’s go!”

            “Deal.” Ryan laughed, ruffling her hair. He smiled down at her until her eyes shifted behind him.

            Frowning, he turned and froze. Ray was walking toward them, but he wasn’t looking at them. He was ranting at the ground, a young boy with bright blond hair and dark brown eyes walked beside him, nodding along with whatever Ray was saying.

            Ryan felt his grip on Rosa’s hand tighten, but what made him nervous was that her hold on him also got tighter. He glanced down at her, feeling his heart drop at how pale she looked. Her eyes were wide, trained on Ray and the boy.

            “W-we should head out.” Ryan managed, turning toward his car. Before he could even open the door, the shuffle of the boy’s feet were loud enough for them to hear. As always, Ray moved silently.

            “S-sis?”  
            Ryan’s head snapped up and looked at Ray and the boy. Ray was staring at him, wide eyed and pale. The boy was looking at Rosa like he was about to cry.

            “James?” Rosa said slowly, clinging to Ryan’s hand.

            The boy nodded quickly, taking a step forward. “Yeah, it’s me.”

            Rosa was frozen for a moment before she darted forward and crashed into James who just managed to keep them upright. Over their heads, Ray and Ryan met eyes. As with most of their conversations, they understood what the other wanted to say just by their expressions. _What the absolute fuck._ Was the general topic of conversation. 

            James and Rosa were talking a mile a minute as Ray and Ryan tried to remember how to breathe. Ray moved first, taking the last few steps forward to place his hand on James’s shoulder.

            Ryan’s hands shook as he slowly walked over as James and Rosa looked up at Ray. “Hey, kiddo.” Ray said, voice shaking. “W-what did you mean?”  
            “Dad!” Rosa gasped, running over and grabbing Ryan’s hand with both of hers. She pulled him over to Ray and James. “This is my brother!”

            Ryan looked from Rosa to James. They did look alike. This face shapes were the same and so were their noses. They looked like siblings even if their hair and eyes were different colors.

            “Papa, this is my sister.” James was rocking from his toes to his heel. He tugged on Ray’s arm, gesturing to Rosa.

            The kids grinned at each other as Ray and Ryan looked at each other with pale faces. Ray slowly cracked a grin as their children shared stories. “Didn’t think you would look that good under the mask.”

            Ryan swallowed hard, trying to make words come out of his mouth. “I-you-“ he sighed shakily before smiling. “Didn’t think you’d ever see me without it.”  
            Ray nodded, eyes glazing over for a moment before he held his hand out. Ryan looked at his hand before reaching out with his own. Ray let Ryan hold onto his hand as they looked down at the kids.

 

* * *

 

            James listened to Rosa tell him about her life in her room. Their parents were in the kitchen talking quiet and awkwardly.

            “And then we saw each other!” Rosa said, sitting up a bit taller. She smiled brightly at him, nearly vibrating in her seat.

            James laughed and ruffled her hair. “That’s great sis.” He said, smiling at her before looking at the door.

            Rosa followed his gaze and frowned. “Dad looked really scared.” She said softly, standing and going over to her desk. “He hasn’t looked like that in ages.”  
            “Papa looked like he was going to faint.” James nodded, watching her pull throwing knives from her desk. He stood and padded over, looking over her shoulder. “Wow, these are nice.”

            “Dad got them for me!” Rosa said, holding up the biggest blade. “He taught me when I was five!”

            “Papa taught me how to shoot when I turned ten.” James send absently, reaching for where he normally kept his small pistol.

            They looked at each other and smiled sadly. They knew their parents didn’t teach them how to throw knives and shoot just for fun. They taught them in case something bad happened. In case they might not come back or someone wanted to hurt or take them.

            “We should help them get along!” Rosa declared after a short moment. “Dad needs someone.”

            “So does Papa.” James nodded, pursing his lips for a moment. “And I want them to be happy. And I want us to have a family.”

            Rosa nodded quickly, eyes lighting up. She rushed over to her bed and yanked a box out from under the mattress. She dug through a massive pile of drawings. “I’ve always wanted that. And a dog!”

            “A cat.” James huffed, coming over and kneeling next to Rosa. The majority of the drawings were of her and Ryan, a smaller portion was everyday objects, and a select few had James in them, sometimes with Rosa, sometimes with both Rosa and Ryan.

            “Dog!” Rosa pouted, holding a picture out to James.

            “Cat.” James grinned, laughing as Rosa lightly punched his shoulder. He looked down that the drawing and tensed. There were four people, Rosa, himself, Ryan, and someone that generally looked like Ray.

            “I had a dream when Dad found me.” Rosa said softly, pointing to the general, Ray-shaped blob. “We were together and Dad had someone. I really liked him.”

            “You’ll like Papa.” James said softly, studying the crudely drawn house and sky.

            “You’ll like Dad.” Rosa nodded, offering James her hand.

            James laughed and dropped the picture back into the box, taking Rosa’s hand and holding on for dear life.

 

* * *

 

            Ray and Ryan stared at each other with the kitchen table between them. Rosa and James were curled up on the couch fast asleep. They had spent the day together and now neither Ray nor Ryan could bare the idea of separating them.

            Ryan stared hard at the table, trying to make words leave his mouth. They had talked awkwardly before, but then was for the kids. Now, he had nothing.

            “So.” Ray coughed, running a hand through his hair. “Now what do we do?”

            Ryan blinked up at Ray and shrugged awkwardly. “I-I-I don’t know.” He sighed in defeat. He had ideas, but didn’t know how Ray would take to them.

            Ray frowned and looked out into the living room. He bit his lip before looking at Ryan again. “I-We could move in.” He said slowly, gesturing stiffly with his hands. “James and I don’t have much and we can’t. I won’t-“

            “That works.” Ryan rushed out, eyes wide. He hadn’t lived with another person but Rosa for a long time. However, if Ray and James were to be the people, he was fairly certain he wouldn’t mind at all.

            Ray nodded slowly before standing. “I’ll go get our stuff then.” He said carefully, robotically moving toward the door.

            Ryan frowned and caught Ray’s hand. “Are you okay?” He said nervously, standing slowly.

            Ray blinked at him before nodding. “Yeah, I just.” He smiled distantly. “I’ve been looking everywhere for Rosa, and here she is.”

            Ryan glanced in the living room, just seeing two heads duck out of sight. Smiling, he looked at their hands before looking up at Ray again. “I’ve looked everywhere for James.”

            Ray smiled and squeezed his hand before slipping free. “Guess we’re roommates now.”

            “Yeah.” Ryan said after a moment of nothing coming out of his mouth. He smiled when Ray laughed and turned toward the door.

            As the door clicked closed, Ryan slumped back down into his chair. This was going to be weird.

            Ray had them moved in within three hours. Ryan’s apartment only had three rooms. They moved James into the extra room, woke the kids, and got them into their beds.

            Ryan peaked into James’s room after wishing Rosa good night. Ray sat on the edge of James’s bed, talking to him softly. James nodded along sleepily, smiling up at Ray.

            “Thank you.” James said maybe a bit too loud.

            Ray laughed and kissed his forehead before heading for the door. Ryan rushed to his room, searching for the extra sheets and pillow he didn’t use on his bed.

            Ray was in the living room, trying to get comfortable on the couch with his hood up and shoes under the coffee table. “Take my room.” Ryan said, frowning down at Ray. “I sleep on the couch anyway.”

            “Nope.” Ray said, folding his arms. “I’m good.”

            Ryan narrowed his eyes, biting his lip to keep from smiling when Ray narrowed his eyes back. They stared at each other for a long moment before Ryan sighed in defeat and dropped the sheets and pillow on Ray.

            Ray laughed lightly, trying to untangle himself. Ryan grinned and slipped into his room.

 

* * *

 

            They danced around each other. Technically nothing changed except that they saw each other’s disheveled mornings and worked together to get their tired kids off to school. They didn’t talk about anything.

            They went on like that for weeks. They lived together but acted like they didn’t. If they talked at all, it was to the kids.

            James and Rosa both knew their parents didn’t know how to deal with another adult. They were their own bosses, living alone until they took the kids in. They didn’t like people and they didn’t know how to interact with someone they were okay with, at least, not for hours on end.

            So the plan was simple. The instant diner was done, Rosa dragged James to her room claiming that she needed help with math and that she wanted James to help her. Ray and Ryan stared as her door closed and they were left alone with each other for the first time in weeks.

            Ryan slowly went back to the dishes as Ray turned to look at him. Ray bit his lip before groaning. “Okay, look. We need to actually talk.”

            Ryan didn’t say anything, just focused on the bubbles hiding his hands. Ray frowned and pulled at his hoodie strings. “This isn’t good for them. It’s not fair.”

            Ryan still didn’t speak, words lead weights on the tip of his tongue. Ray sighed and stared at their feet. “Vaga, fuck. I don’t even know your real name. Come on man. We need to talk.”

            “I know.” Ryan pushed over the weights, ignoring how they clung to his words. “I-I just don’t know what to do.”

            Ray’s shoulders jumped and he frowned. “Well, we could just. Talk? I mean. We need to be their parents and we can’t do that if we don’t know their lives, right?”  
            Ryan gave Ray a shaky smile over his shoulder. He could go on for hours about Rosa and how proud he was of her, and that was truly the point, wasn’t it?

            By the time the kids were tucked into bed, their conversations had twisted in every direction possible. They told stories, debated, and laughed. They were sat on the couch playing games until too early in the morning.

            Ryan had never talked so easily to someone before in his life. He was even hesitant with Rosa. No one ever made him feel so safe to make that creepy joke and trust that they would laugh.

            Ray never felted so connected to someone, not even James. He could understand Ryan on every level while sometimes he couldn’t figure out what James was thinking. He could relax, drop all of his masks and still have every single one of them loved.

            The kids smiled when they found their parents sleeping on the couch leaning against each other in the morning. They quietly got themselves ready for school before waking them up because they didn’t trust the busses either.

            When they returned home, Ray called Geoff and told him that neither of them were coming to the penthouse. He smiled and let Ryan drag him to the bedroom so that they could sleep in comfort, cuddled up against each other.

 

* * *

 

            James watched Ryan from the hallway. He was cleaning knives and guns, taking them apart and putting them back together again with ease. James wanted to learn how to do that. He wanted to go over there and talk, but.

            Frowning, James took a deep breath and walked over to Ryan. Puffing up his chest, he opened his mouth and only a rasping breath escaped. Before he could turn and run, Ryan was smiling gently at him.

            James was frozen to the spot, eyes wide. Ryan waited patiently, the barrel of a gun in one hand and a rag covering the other. “C-can you show me how to take apart the guns?” James said slowly.

            Ryan blinked at him in surprise before looking down at his guns. Looking back up at James and gave him a smile that looked as awkward as they both felt. “Sure, we’ll start small.”

            James nodded and sat next to Ryan. He listened carefully as Ryan explained the different parts of a pistol, slowly taking them apart and handing them to James to hold.

            Sometimes Ryan would flub his words, but James never laughed. He smiled knowingly and flubbed his own words. They found themselves laughing over the strange things that came out of their mouths between assembling guns.

            “Very good.” Ryan smiled at James when he managed to assemble the pistol correctly the first time on his forth try.

            James looked at the gun wide eyed, before smiling brightly up at Ryan. “Can you show me another?”

            Ryan and James sat there for hours, assembling and taking apart guns. They talked quietly about random things, James asking questions and Ryan considering his answers carefully before responding.

            Ray smiled at them when he found them still there when he and Rosa returned from the store. They had both gotten restless and went for a walk and then had gotten hungry and bought snacks. He and Rosa shared smiles as James and Ryan laughed.

 

* * *

 

            Rosa stared at the top shelf of the games bookcase, frowning at how tall the Halo game she wanted was. Looking down at herself, she quickly estimated her weight then reached out and pressed on the shelf directly in front of her.

            The fake wood bowed, wobbling as she removed her hand. Huffing, she looked at the furniture she could actully move and walked over to the coffee table. Putting most of her weight on her hands, she held herself up on the coffee table, smiling. The wood barely creaked or bowed.

            Settling on her feet again, she grabbed one end of the table and began to drag it over to the bookcase. Once the table was in place, she put one foot up onto the table which was when Ray walked in.

            “Oh no.” Ray gasped, rushing over and scooping Rosa up. “Sorry kiddo. That is not safe.”

            “I just want to play Halo.” Rosa groaned, holding onto Ray’s shoulders. “It’s so high uppppp.”  
            Ray smiled and pushed the table away with his foot. “How about now?” He said, stepping closer to the bookcase. He rested Rosa on his hip as she grinned and grabbed the game.

            “Thank you!” Rosa smiled at him wiggling in his arms. She paused when she was set down, turning around and grabbing Ray’s sleeve. “Do you want to play with me?”  
            “Sure.” Ray shrugged, picking up the coffee table as Rosa let him go and ran over to the X-box. “Just warning you, I’m pretty good.”

            “So am I.” Rosa grinned crookedly at him over her shoulder before focusing on the console.

            Ray raised an amused eyebrow, setting the table down. He dropped onto the couch, taking the controller Rosa held out to him. She jumped up onto the other end of the loveseat, navigating Ryan’s X-box to the game.

            They shared competitive smiles as the loading screen prepped their game. Once the game began, their focus turned entirely toward shooting each other.

            They both stared, slack jawed, at the screen. They were evenly matched. Neither of them were holding back and neither of them had been beaten in a game for a long time. Slowly, they turned to look at each other, evil smiles curling on their faces.

            Rosa, without looking, entered into X-box live and created a team of just the two of them. Once they were in the game, chaos began.

            When Ryan and James returned from the shooting ranger where Ryan was helping James improve his knife throwing, Ray and Rosa were in the middle of a game. They were killing everyone without a single person touching them.

            Ryan and James glanced at each other, the empty pizza box on the coffee table, bottles of soda resting beside the couch, then finally at Ray and Rosa. Smiling, they quietly snuck off to their respective rooms.

            About an hour later, James came back in, not in the mood for reading, and sat where Rosa had started the gaming marathon. Now she sat right next to Ray, leaning into his side tiredly.

            Ray smiled at him and offered the controller, taking it back when James shook his head. As the games continued, Rosa drifting in and out of sleep and James slid over, leaned against Ray and Rosa, feeling his eyes begin to droop.

            When Ryan finally came out of his room to make sure everyone was alive, he found Ray smiling fondly down at the kids as they slept leaned up against him. The controller dangled from his fingers, Rosa’s dropped to the floor.

            Chuckling, Ryan gently sat down next to James, letting the boy shift and lean against him instead. Over their heads, Ryan’s and Ray’s eyes met and the controller was held out. Ryan happily took it and watched Ray pick up Rosa’s.

            They played a few games before Ryan turned off the console. Ray picked up Rosa while Ryan picked up James. They tucked the kids in and left the living room to clean in the morning.

            Before Ray could even think about sleeping on the couch, Ryan had his hand and was pulling him toward the bedroom.

 

* * *

 

            The entire crew noticed when the schedule shifted. They noticed when Ray and Vagabond left together. They noticed that they were basically glued to the hip. Geoff had never seen Vagabond look at someone for so long without killing them. Michael had never seen Ray blush, for any reason what-so-ever. Now, suddenly, if he looked at Vagabond for too long his cheeks would pink and he would smile like an idiot.

            They all knew something was different, but they kept quiet, even Gavin. They had all seen in a small heist what could happen when someone crossed Ray or Vagabond. They didn’t exist anymore. There wasn’t even a body to bury.

            What the crew didn’t count on was Jeremy getting tired of their shit. “Alright!” He shouted during a surprisingly quiet evening. “What the fuck?”

            The rest of the crew flinched as Ray and Vagabond stared at Jeremy blankly. “What?” Ray said, raising an eyebrow. He was leaned back against Vagabond’s side, DS in hand, illuminating his face.

            “What’s going on with you two?” Jeremy crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes at them. “First your weird an hour after meeting each other and then you were awkward as fuck for like a day, and now you’re all lovey-dovey and shit! It’s been four months! What gives?”

            “Good knowing you.” Michael muttered under his breath as Gavin watched on the edge of his seat. Jack and Geoff shared glances before sighing. Jeremy was a good kid, he’d be a martyr for this.

            Ray and Vagabond shared glances. Vagabond shrugged and Ray smiled. They both looked at Jeremy who strained not to flinch. “We were talking.” Ray said slowly, closing his DS. “And Vagamuffin here wants to get closer to you guys.”

            Geoff’s and Gavin’s jaw dropped while Jack froze, eyes glazed as he tried to process that information. Michael giggled mainly to himself, muttering ‘Vagamuffin’ every few breaths. Jeremy narrowed his eyes at them as Vagabond nodded.

            “You’re avoiding the question.” Jeremy said, yelping when a pillow was thrown at him.

            “Quiet you smeg pot!” Gavin said, nearly bouncing. “Vagabond’s going to _talk._ ”

            “I didn’t say that.” Ray snorted, smirking when Gavin pouted. “I only get the privilege of hearing that.”

             Jeremy frowned, studying them as Vagabond nodded and the others groaned. They all tensed when Vagabond reached up and slipped his fingers under his mask. Ray returned to his DS as the skull was removed and a handsome man with blond hair and smooth skin smiled awkwardly at all of them, waving.

            There was silent for a moment before the entire room burst into chaos. Jack was scrambling for his phone for photo proof, Gavin was asking a million questions while Geoff complained that he had known Vagabond the longest but didn’t know what he looked like. Michael was trying to get Ray to talk to him while Ryan clung to his purple hoodie, nodding awkwardly to some of Gavin’s questions.

            Jeremy watched with a blank face. As much as he knew about both BrownMan and Vagabond, which was very little, he knew for certain that they didn’t trust anyone. Vagabond had no face minus a skull and BrownMan tended to disappear without telling anyone, yet here they were trusting them but trusting each other the most.

            Something was going on here, and he as determined to find out.

 

* * *

 

            In retrospect, Jeremy had worse ideas and he had better ones. This was definitely one of his worst ideas. When Vagabond and Ray left the penthouse, he silently trailed after them. The rest of the crew saw him go, but didn’t comment. If he lived, they wanted to know what he discovered.

            He watched them get into one of Vagabond’s cars, quickly following them in the first car he saw that didn’t belong to anyone on the crew. He lost them for a bit when hotwiring the car took longer than he wanted.

            He caught up easily enough, following them a few cars behind. He didn’t follow them when they turned into the parking lot of a Middle School. Instead, he drove ahead and stopped the car on the side of the rode a mile away.

            Erasing any trace of himself in the car, he slipped into the woods lining the road and walked back to the schools. Ray and a once again mask-less Vagabond stood side by side, leaning against the car. They were talking, aloud.

            Jeremy could only hear them faintly, unable to make out anything they were saying. Vagabond’s voice was deep and smooth. Jeremy felt his heart race and his eyes widen. Why the fuck were they at a school looking like fucking _dads_?

            He jumped and dived behind a tree when the school’s bell startled him. He took a few deep breaths before peaking around the tree again. Ray and Vagabond hadn’t moved, but they were looking at the school as kids leaked out.

            “Papa!” He heard faintly over the crowd.

            Oh, oh. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. They _were_ dads.

            Jeremy’s jaw dropped as a kid with blond hair and piercing brown eyes jogged through the parking lot towards Ray and Vagabond.

            “Hey kiddo!” Jeremy had to read Ray’s lips as the roar of car engines and yelling kids drowned out their voices.

            Ray hugged the kid once he got to them. When he let go, Vagabond ruffled his hair and offered his hand. The kid looked between Vagabond’s face and hand for a moment. Jeremy could feel the nervousness pouring off of Vagabond from the tree line.

            Eventually the kid looked up at Vagabond and gave him a smile. He took his hand then Ray’s. Jeremy felt his jaw gather dirt as it dropped. Vagabond looked like the world had been removed from his shoulders as Ray laughed.

            “What gives, James? It took you three years to even spit at me!” Jeremy still had to read their lips. He frowned when he couldn’t see the kid’s response, but whatever he said had both Ray and Vagabond laughing.

            “Okay.” Jeremy breathed under his breath. “So they have a kid, no big deal. Everything makes a lot more sense.”

            He watched them, James swinging Ray’s and Vagabond’s hands as he talked. Jeremy could only see bits and pieces, but he guessed he was telling them about school. They stayed there as the buses cleared out and the parking lot emptied of even most of the teachers.

            Jeremy frowned, avoiding the urge to shift nervously. What were they waiting for? He glanced at the elementary school when Vagabond did. Wait, was there _another_ one?

            He wasn’t sure his brain could take this anymore. Two of the world’s most deadly men were fucking fathers? And really good ones at that? What a world he lived in.

            They talked until the elementary school’s bell rang. All three looked at the rush of kids. Vagabond let James’s hand go to catch a blur of a young girl. Jeremy smiled with James and Ray as Vagabond picked the girl up and hugged her tightly as she laughed.

            “Dad!” The girl squealed, hugging Vagabond tightly before being set down. She ran over to James and hugged him, before hugging Ray as well.

            Jeremy had to hold back any noises. These four were just too cute. He watched Vagabond walk back over and laugh as the girl grabbed his hand then James’s. She talked so fast that Jeremy couldn’t read her lips, but all of them were giving her their undivided attention.

            Suddenly Jeremy realized he was intruding. He dodged back behind the tree and stared hard at the bark. Should he tell the rest of the crew? There was a good reason Ray and Vagabond weren’t telling them. He couldn’t ruin that for them.

            Smacking his forehead against the tree once, he sighed. Damn his curiosity. If Gavin asked the right questions, he’d fuck up eventually. He did not want to die. Sighing, Jeremy poked around the tree one last time, and froze.

            His eyes met the brown of James’s and the world stopped. The kid was staring right at him, scowling almost exactly like Ray did. Oh god, he was dead.

            In the same moment he looked at Ray and Vagabond to make sure they didn’t see James staring, they both looked at the kid then directly at him. There was only a second for any of them to understand what was going on before Vagabond was running directly for him.

            Jeremy gasped and turned to run, but he tripped over his own feet and had to catch himself on the tree. That was apparently enough time for Vagabond to reach him and grab him by the collar.

            “Don’t kill me!” Jeremy gasped as Vagabond dragged him from the trees and over to the car.

            “Who’s that?” The girl said in the distance, James hard stare boring into Jeremy’s back. He hadn’t seen Vagabond’s face. He didn’t want to.

            “Someone we work with, Rosa.” Ray said, voice getting closer. “And we can’t kill him.”

            “Ray, you beautiful man!” Jeremy gasped, looking over his shoulder to give Ray a thankful look. He regretted his life choices immediately.

            Ray’s face was completely neutral, even his eyes were empty. James glared at him like Vagabond glared at Gavin and Rosa had this crooked smile he had seen on Vagabond’s face once. The man himself had this terrifyingly, _jealous_ , look on his face as he dropped Jeremy onto the ground in front of Ray.

            Jeremy swallowed hard and looked up meekly. “Please don’t kill me? Or torture me?” He said, feeling smaller than normal.

            All of them stared down at him and he suddenly wished he could disappear or possibly shrink more. He looked at the kids since they were slightly less terrifying. Yet, somehow they were more because their eyes were tearing him apart.

            “Alright.” Ray sighed and all eyes turned to him. Jeremy sighed in relief. “We’re going to the dinner.”

            “Yay!” Rosa gasped, grabbing James’s hand and yanking him to the car. “Pie!”

            James’s eyes went wide before he started smiling brightly. “Good food!”

            “Watch it!” Ray laughed as Rosa tugged James into the backseat of the car.

            Jeremy just caught the smirk James gave Ray before the door closed. He yelped as he was yanked to his feet, Vagabond glaring down at him.

            “Easy, big guy.” Ray said, placing his hand on Vagabond’s shoulder. “It’s alright.”

            Vagabond’s eyes snapped toward Ray and softened. He nodded once before heading for the driver’s seat. Jeremy tried to take a step back, but Ray had a hold of his arm in a death grip in a millisecond.

            “Oh no, you’re coming.” Ray nearly hissed, eyes dark. Jeremy swallowed hard, paling when Ray suddenly smiled. “Good luck in the back.”

            Before he could protest, Ray was shoving him into the backseat, between the kids. They looked up at him with identical grins they could have only gotten from each other. “I am going to die.” Jeremy wheezed under his breath. He didn’t like how Vagabond and James laughed at that.

            After _the_ most uncomfortable car ride of his life, they got to a small family dinner. Rosa and James basically dragged him toward the building. Once inside, they were seated with friendly smiles and casually conversation.

            Jeremy nervously looked at the menu as Ray, James, and Rosa talked to the waitress. They were regulars, which already made him feel out of place. What was worse was the glares Vagabond was sending his way.

            When the waitress finally left, having taken Jeremy’s shaky order, he was alone with a family of crazy people.

            “You’re not going to tell the crew, are you?” James said, startling Jeremy. His eyes were hard, but fear floated in the background.

            Jeremy shook his head quickly, glad the kid seemed to relax. Ray and Vagabond were still staring him down.

            “I’m impressed.” Ray said after a tense moment. His entire body relaxed and he gave Jeremy his normal lazy smile. “I didn’t even notice you following us.”

            “Well, you know.” Jeremey shrugged, pulling at the loose strings on his pants. “Gotta be sneaky to be a pickpocket.”

            Ray, Rosa, and James nodded knowingly. Vagabond just kept glaring at him. “You’re Jeremy, right?” Rosa said, Ray’s calculating smile on her face. She’d be cute if he didn’t think she was a killer. Hell, she was still cute.

            “Yeah, that’s me.” Jeremy’s voice cracked halfway through his sentence and he appreciated the understanding look James shot him.

            “What’s being a professional pickpocket like?” Rosa said, bouncing in her seat slightly.

            “Uh, well. It’s mainly about being smart with where people are looking.” Jeremey said slowly, glancing at Ray and Vagabond. They were both looking at the kids fondly. “You have to make them look somewhere else while you take their goods.”

            “There are tricks to it, right? Certain people you go for?” James said with a small tilt to his head.

            “Well, you can trick everyone once you’ve gaged their personality.” Jeremy shrugged, never happier to give away his pocket picking secrets.

            James nodded as Rosa gave him an awe filled look. “That’s cool! How do you do that?”

            Jeremy glanced at Ray and Vagabond again, but they weren’t paying attention to him. They were doing that weird silent communication thing that they did. Shaking his head, Jeremy looked at the kids and launched into a long explanation about the human face.

            They were good kids. A little weird, and, well, murdery, but they probably couldn’t help that. He could see a little of Ray and Vagabond in the both of them, but they were definitely different. James was more expressive, but not as loud as Rosa. He would read anything he got his hands on while Rosa drew on the nearest piece of paper.

            Rosa was louder than all of them combined. She had a Gavin level attention span and thought process, but she was slightly more informed than Gavin. They were both extremely intelligent although Rosa had more common sense. James asked the questions and Rose typically had an answer.

            Ray barely spoke. Once or twice he spoke up to correct the answer to a question or ask one of his own. Vagabond, like at the penthouse, didn’t speak. Jeremy knew he could, but decided that, for the sake of his possibly short life, he shouldn’t ask.

            When they left, full of good food and smiles, Jeremy was shoved back into the car. At least this time he couldn’t see the hatred pouring off of everyone. He just felt Vagabond try to mentally kill him every so often.

            They arrived to a nice apartment building close to the schools. Once again, Rosa and James dragged him along, letting him go to rush off to their rooms.

            “Do your homework!” Ray called after them, smiling when he got two groans. Immediately, he turned to Jeremy with a neutral look. “Now, what to do with you?”

            Jeremy groaned, flinching when Vagabond was suddenly right beside him. “I’m sorry! I just- I was curious!”

            “We’re not going to kill you.” Ray snorted, rolling his eyes when Vagabond’s shoulders drooped. “We just want to make sure you won’t tell the others.”

            “I’m not.” Jeremy said, standing as tall as he could. “I wasn’t going to when I found out and I definitely am not now. I-I understand why you don’t want them to know.”

            Ray studied him for a second before smiling. “Thanks, man.” He sighed.

            Vagabond refused to relax, his arms were folded tightly across his chest, lips pressed into a thin line. Jeremy glanced up at him and stepped sideways. “So, uh. How?” Jeremy said, smiling awkwardly.

            Ray laughed and gestured for Jeremy to follow him. Jeremy sat between them on the couch, listening to Ray explain the full story. By the end, Jeremy was leaned back, eyes wide and dazed.

            “Shit.” Jeremy whispered, glancing down the hall to where the kids had yet to reemerge. “That’s rough.”

            “Yeah.” Ray sighed, looking at his hands in his laps. “But, things are better now.”

            Jeremy flinched at the pointed look Ray gave him. “Yep.” He croaked, grimacing more than smiling.

            Ray made him stay a bit longer before letting him go. He wondered back into the penthouse and to his room, ignoring all of the questions the crew sent his way.

 

* * *

 

            Weeks since Jeremy nearly lost his life, he thought the world had gone back to normal. Ray and Vagabond acted like normal, the crew finally stopped asking him questions. Everything was okay. Then Vagabond cornered him in the bathroom one morning.

            “I thought we were cool!” Jeremy groaned around his tooth brush, foam leaking from his mouth into his beard.

            Vagabond shook his masked head, closing the door and folding his arms. Jeremy frown and slowly spat out the toothpaste. He took as long as he dared cleaning his beard and lips just to avoid whatever death awaited him when he turned around.

            Closing his eyes, Jeremy turned and waited for the gun shot or blade. When nothing happened, all of his blood still safely inside of him, he cracked his eyes open. Vagabond was holding his mask, staring down at the eye sockets. He was shifting his weight from foot to foot, biting his lip.

            “Can you babysit the kids tonight?” Vagabond eventually croaked out, looking up at Jeremy with wide, scared eyes. He was pale and shaking.

            “Uh, what?” Jeremy rasped, furrowing his brow.

            Vagabond sighed shakily, swallowing hard before licking his lips. “Can you watch the kids tonight? I-R-Ray-I. Date.” He pushed out, looking like he was going to vomit.

            Jeremy frowned and hesitantly reached out and patted Vagabond’s hand. “No problem, buddy.”

            Vagabond slowly relaxed, giving Jeremy a thankful smile. “Need me to pick them up too?” Jeremy said, folding his arms. Vagabond nodded, smiling when Jeremy gave him a thumbs up. “On it buddy.”

           

* * *

 

            James instantly thought he had hurt his parents in some way. “Ow! Hey!” Jeremy tried to dodge the rocks James was throwing at him, but they always managed to hit. “They asked me to babysit you guys!”

            James froze mid-throw, eyes narrowing. He dropped the rock and yanked his phone from his pocket. He speed dialed and pressed the phone against his ear. There was absolute silence for a moment before James spoke rapidly in Spanish.

            Jeremy leaned back in shock, eyes wide. He had taken high school Spanish, but that was nothing compared to how fast James was talking. The conversation went back and forth for a moment before James sighed.

            Jeremy smiled awkwardly as James hung up and glared at him. “Fine.” He huffed, folding his arms.

            They sat in silence until Rosa joined them. She frowned at Jeremy before going over to James. They talked quietly, covering their mouths so he couldn’t read their lips. He felt nervous suddenly when James’s eyes suddenly lit up and they turned crooked smiles towards him.

            He had no idea how Ray and Vagabond normally were. How strict they were or how much they let them get away with, but he drew the line at knives.

            “But Papa lets me cut the vegetables!” Rosa pouted up at him as he held the knife as far from her as he could.

            “He does.” James grinned from the kitchen table. He was swinging his leg, cheek pressed against his closed fist.

            Jeremy looked between them before sighing in defeat. “Fine, but you and your brother have to take turns.”

            “Yay!” Rosa grinned, taking the knife when Jeremy brought the blade back down to her height. James laughed and slipped from his seat, walking over to the cutting board and letting Rosa cut first.

            Jeremy watched them like a hawk, barely surprised by their knife skills. Before starting diner, Rosa had dragged him into her room to help her with math. On her wall was a large array of throwing knives. When James joined them a few minutes later with his homework, Jeremy saw the barrel of a small pistol handing from his belt. If their parents didn’t kill him, these kids would.

            Homework went much smoother when James finished his and helped Rosa with math. They were both in advanced classes and Jeremy had barely passed high school in the standard ones. Hell, he even learned something from them, although both he and Rosa were on the same page with math.

            Before diner was apparently video game hour. Jeremy just rolled with the punches since Rosa was as good as Ray and James was getting up there. They both whooped his ass at every game they played, including the trivia ones.

            When he brought up ordering pizza for diner, James insisted that they make something healthy. He and Rosa argued for a moment over the health benefits of pizza while Jeremy tried to remember the last time he actually cooked something.

            As he watched James cut vegetables as fast as a professional chief, he vaguely wondered if Ray and Vagabond knew how lucky they were. Even if James still called Vagabond ‘Vaga’ instead of Dad like Rosa, they were good kids. They loved their family.

            Sometimes he could tell they were a little confused that their parents weren’t home. Jeremy remembered Ray’s explanation and smiled. They had always been there for these kids. They stood beside them and no matter what, they always came home.

            “Uncle Jeremy?” Rosa said in the middle of eating diner. “What’s your story?”

            Jeremy stared at Rosa with his mouth hanging open. The stir-fry on his fork fell off and plopped back onto his plate. “Uncle-Jeremy?” He said slowly, blinking as Rosa nodded happily at him. Letting his fork rest against his plate, he laughed dazed for a moment before shaking his head. “Well, when I was a little older than James, I got bullied a lot.”

            Their empty plates were forgotten in front of them as Jeremy finished his story. The kids were on the edge of their seats, looking up at him with wide eyes. Sometimes, he found it hard to believe that these kids could be so creepy and scary.   

            By the time ten rolled around, both kids were fast asleep leaning against Jeremy. Some movie he had barely paid attention to played in the background as he tried not to doze off himself. Rosa had insisted on a movie night until their parents got back.

            Jeremy smiled gently at them before slipping free. He carefully woke them up and got them off to bed. James insisted that they at least brush their teeth, although they were falling asleep with the foam dribbling past their lips.

            “Thank you.” Rosa said softly before Jeremy could leave her room.

            Turning back, he saw that her eyes were closed, blanket tucked up to her chin. He smiled, and grabbed the door knob. “No problem, kid.” He whispered, slipping from the room as Rosa smiled.

            About thirty minutes later, Ray and Vagabond quietly slipped into the apartment. Jeremy watched them over the couch. Their hands were clasped between them, stupid smiles on their faces. Ray looked like he was in another world, eyes dazed and lips slightly swollen. Vagabond was staring at Ray was a love sick look.

            Shaking his head, Jeremy stood and nodded to them. Ray blinked and laughed lightly. “Thank you.” He whispered, slipping his hand from Vagabond’s to go to the kids room.

            “Well, I’ll see you guys tomorrow?” Jeremy said as Vagabond watched Ray.

            “Ryan.” Vagabond said, turning to Jeremy and offering his hand. “Thank you.”

            Jeremy looked at Ryan wide eyed, taking his hand slowly. “Any time.” He croaked.

            Ryan chuckled and let his hand go before heading for the kids rooms as well. Jeremy watched him slip into Rosa’s room before smiling and leaving quietly.


	4. VagaGod

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan got bored easily. Being a God wasn’t as great as many seemed to think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God!Ryan based off of this fan art that I absolutely love: https://vexhexer.tumblr.com/post/139938673428/from-the-stream-tonight-it-was-such-a-blast 
> 
> Thank you for reading!

            Ryan got bored easily. Being a God wasn’t as great as many seemed to think, not when those worshiping him were nearly eradicated. He was down to a small house in the middle of a war torn land, begging him to stop a war dictated by some other religions God. The problem was out of his hands, although he did what he could, protected his followers from bullets and explosions. He tried his hardest, but those drone things were hard to track.

            Due to his boredom, he tended to walk the Earth, causing Chaos among people who had nothing better to do in their cushy first world countries. He caused arguments among church goers of different faiths. He made people shoot at each other, he believed in the choice of women and the education of children so he stopped what shootings he could in schools and pro-choice buildings, when he could. He was only one God, he couldn’t stop them all.

            When he was on Earth, he discovered that walking around with the skull of a bull on his head freaked humans out. So he went without a few times and felt oddly naked without some kind of mask. So instead, he picked up a black human skull mask from a vender. Strangely enough, that freaked people out less, or they at least got used to that face.

            Humans were so odd, afraid of a cow skull but not their own. Of course, his cow skull glowed blue along carved lines, a small three point crown on the forehead. Perhaps that was the problem, the glowing. And maybe the fact that instead of looking like he was wearing a cow skull, he actually looked like the cow skull was his head. Just maybe.

            Regardless, the human skull mask was taken much better, well, he attracted less attention anyway. Causing chaos was a little hard when everyone was staring at him. He didn’t work well under that kind of pressure.

            Eventually his visits to Earth became more and more frequent as there was less and less for him to do in the home of the Gods. Humans were odd but fascinating, much more so than the same cast of Gods he had to live with for nearly all of his immortal life.

            He gained quiet a reputation among humans. They were calling him all sorts of things, different from the name he chose for himself, Ryan, his title as a War God, a name rarely used (his followers tended to just call him War anymore). They called him Mad King, Black Skull, Vagabond. There were a few other iterations, but those were the most common.

            He found himself fond of the title Vagabond. He was greater than Kings and the black skull he wore wasn’t his usual mask. Vagabond was a new title and if his followers found the name burned into their alter for him and began calling him that instead, no one was the wiser.

            With this new title of his, he found that people were searching him out. Not like his followers, now and in the past. Not with prayers and sacrifices, but instead they were trying to either capture, kill, or hire him. Humans were strange indeed.

            Policemen wanted justice, other killers wanted his weight in gold, and some wanted him to take out competition or an unfaithful partner. Ryan humored the police, letting them capture him only to leave the building in shambles and officers drowning in madness and chaos. He killed the ones seeking to kill him, turning in their heads for money and giving all of the profits to which ever charity caught his attention first. He had no need for money, he could have anything he wanted with a snap of his fingers.

            Being a gun for hire, however, he loved. They were paying him to cause chaos, to destroy one company or another. He fed off of the malice humans held in their hearts. He took jobs that he wanted and killed employers that didn’t match his morals. He was a God after all, he had morals and virtues he upheld as part as his nature.

            Geoffrey Ramsey introduced a new segment of the humans seeking him. When he sat beside Ryan at a bar where informants liked to spill their secrets, he smirked at him, offered his card and a permanent job on a crew.

            Ryan ran his fingers over the edges of the card, studying Geoff who refused to shrink away or flinch under his gaze. Ryan could see the big plans in his eyes, the desire, not for power or greed, but for fun, for family. Smiling under his mask he nodded and offered Geoff his hand.

            “I’d love to join,” he said, smirking when Geoff’s eyes widened before he grinned brightly. No mortal had heard him speak and lived and he knew that Geoff knew that.

            “Come to the address on that card tomorrow then,” Geoff said, shaking his hand quickly before slipping from the bar stool, “I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

            Ryan nodded and watched Geoff leave, the card disappearing into the air. If he needed the address again, he’d summon it again, but he already knew everything he needed to know. Being a God did have some benefits, he might not know every mortal, but he could know them well enough if he wanted.

            When he appeared outside the penthouse door, he could hear fighting and arguing inside and laughed lightly to himself. Chaos oozed out from under the door, but not disorderly chaos, the kind generally created by humans, this was very organized and loved chaos. This was the natural chaos that Ryan created. He was going to like it here.

            He knocked as hard as he could, the yelling and arguing stopping from inside. A moment later, the door swung open and Geoff grinned at him, as the other members of the Crew pointed guns at him.

            The three men who had been fighting were all trying to protect each other, the shortest of them managing to get in front of the other two. The tallest was hiding behind a curly haired man with a permanent scowl. A woman stood in the doorway to a bedroom dressed in a tacky Hawaiian shirt and shorts. Another man had a large, pink sniper riffle resting on the back of the couch, the sites right between Ryan’s eyes.

            Oh, he was going to love it here.

            “Vagabond! About fucking time, asshole,” Geoff said, gesturing for Ryan to enter.

            Ryan stepped into the penthouse and looked over the crew who slowly lowered their weapons. The shortest man grinned at him while the tallest stayed hidden behind the scowling man. The woman tossed her Glock back into the room and smiled brightly at Ryan. The man with the sniper lowered the gun and dissembled the riffle in a few seconds, the pieces disappearing somewhere on his person.

            “Hey, fuckers, get over here,” Geoff said, closing the door and standing next to Ryan, “This is the new guy I told you about.”

            “The fucking Vagabond?” the scowling man sneered, glaring at Ryan as the shortest man dragged him and the tallest over.

            “Better on our side then against us,” the woman said, shaking her head at the men.

            “Nice mask,” the sniper said, hands stuffing into the pockets of his purple hoodie.

            “Alright, that’s Jeremy, Michael, and Gavin,” Geoff said, pointing to the three men in ascending heights, “That’s Ray,” he gestured to the man in the purple hoodie, “and this lovely lady is Jack.”

            “Nice to meet you,” Jack said, offering Ryan a hand and a look he had seen on the mother Goddess before.

            Resisting the urge to cringe, Ryan took Jack’s hand. He hadn’t even done anything this time, but he always got that look he was a new god. “You as well,” he said, glancing at Gavin when he squawked like a bird.

            “You _do_ talk!” Gavin said, looking at Ryan wide eyed, “I could never find an account of that.”

            Ryan shrugged and folded his arms. Geoff rolled his eyes and patted his shoulder. “Since Vagabond has finally joined us, we’ll be having a heist meeting tomorrow. Today, we’re having a game night.”

            While Michael continued to scowl, Jeremy and Gavin grabbed his arms and dragged him back into the living room where the yelling and laughing continued. Jack and Geoff talked quietly to each other, leaving Ryan to look at Ray and decide if he wanted to hear Geoff’s and Jack’s conversation.

            “You any good?” Ray said, glancing in the living room at a crash before shaking his head and looking back at Ryan.

            “At what?” Ryan said, looking Ray over. He had a certain air to him, he knew the sensation, but couldn’t place his fingers on where he had felt it before.

            “Games,” Ray said, eyebrows raising when Ryan just cocked his head to the side, “Video games? Ever played?”

            Ryan frowned and searched his infinite knowledge for a moment. Video games, they came about at the dawn of computers and TVs. They were pixilated characters that reacted to input created by someone with a controller. “I’ve never played,” Ryan said, looking back at Ray.

            Ray’s jaw drop and he snorted, shaking his head. “Well, that’s gonna change,” he said with a nod. He grabbed Ryan’s arm and dragged him into the living room. “All we fucking do is play games.”

            Ryan looked at Ray’s hand, little shivers shooting up his spine. There was definitely familiar about that feeling, but Ryan couldn’t place it, even in his infinite knowledge. “I was under the impression that you killed for a living,” he said instead, smiling when Ray snorted and laughed.

            “Well, of fucking course, but we just game the rest of the time,” Ray said, making Ryan sit on the couch before going over to pull apart Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy who were messing around too much to get anything completed.

            Ryan watched them with interest. Those three were definitely together. Gavin clung to the both of them in equal parts and Michael would glare at Ryan if he looked at either Jeremy or Gavin for too long. Jeremy wasn’t nearly as guarded, but he was always sure to sit between Ryan and the other two. If that was for their safety or because Michael looked like he wanted to kill him, Ryan actually wasn’t sure.

            He watched as Ray got Michael to stop glaring at Ryan long enough to help him set up the two TVs and game consuls they had. Geoff and Jack joined them, sitting on Ryan’s other side. Jeremy and Gavin were a space away from Ryan, talking quietly to each other, occasionally glancing at Ryan.

            “Alright, leeeeeeeet’s play!” Ray shouted, tossing Ryan a controller before dropping into the seat next to him.

            The others snorted and laughed lightly, turning their attention to the TV. Ryan stared at the controller in his hands for a moment, searching for any and all knowledge on video games.

            “Dude, you’re holding it backwards,” Ray said, startling Ryan from his thoughts.

            Ryan looked up at Ray then down at the controller. His infinite wisdom informed him that he was, in fact, holding the controller backwards, the hand holds facing away from him. Glad that his mask hid his blush, he turned the controller around and coughed lightly. “I knew,” he said, glancing at Ray when he laughed.

            “Yeah, sure, “Ray snorted, leaning over so their shoulders touched and pointed at the TV with less viewpoints split up on the screen, “You’re on that screen, under me,” he said, moving his joystick to move his character around.

            Ryan nodded and studied the game for a moment. GTA, a little ironic. It made Ryan smile. “Come the fuck _on_ ,” Michael hissed, something exploding making their controllers shake, “We’re pulling off a heist!”

            Ryan laughed as Ray settled back into the couch beside him. “We’re coming,” he snorted, running over to Ryan’s random character, “Come on Vaga.”

            Ryan learned very quickly as he played, listening as Ray re-explained some game mechanics for him. The sniper treated him like another human being, skull mask and all. He acted like the mask wasn’t even there. Ray didn’t resent him like Michael and Jeremy, or fear him like Gavin seemed to. Geoff and Jack respected him, but there was a healthy amount of fear to their eyes.

            Ray didn’t have any of that, he smiled easily and saw Ryan as a human being. As strange as that was, the feeling was welcome. Even other gods were weary of him, he wasn’t the easiest to approach or one of the more benevolent gods. He was the God of War, the master of chaos. He didn’t make friends easy.

            However, as the night went on, Gavin stopped fearing him too much and Geoff was cursing at him as much as he was the others. He got Michael to laugh a few times and teamed up with Jack. He and Jeremy were arguing semantics and who should drive on the criteria of height. Ray laughed and when they were a team, they were unstoppable. This place settled into a second home, and he had only been there for a few hours.  

            “You’re not bad,” Ray said, bumping their shoulders together. Geoff was arguing with Gavin drunkenly about what to play next. “Well, you learn fast anyway.”

            “Not much to it,” Ryan shrugged, smiling down at Ray. He wasn’t sure how, but Ray knew he was smiling.

            “Yeah, but you got fucking good fast,” Ray snorted, leaning back and dropping his controller into his lap.

            “Not as good as you,” Ryan said, frowning for a moment. Ray always won, especially in the first-person shooter games. His aim was perfect and his skills unmatched by anyone in the crew, including Ryan, who was a God. He was terrifyingly good.

            “Like I said, we don’t do anything but heist and game,” Ray said with a shrug and a grin.

            “You mean you don’t do anything but heist and game,” Jeremy snorted, leaning away as Michael joined the argument over games, flailing his arms as his face turned red, “The rest of us have shit to do.”

            “You mean other than bang?” Ray said, grinning when Jeremy turned red.

            “So where are you staying, Vagabond?” Jack said, chuckling when Jeremy gave her a thankful look.

            Ryan shrugged and gestured with the controller vaguely. “Around,” he said, dropping his hand into his lap.

            “You’re not staying? We still have an empty room since those three idiots share,” Ray said jerking his thumb at Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy.

            “Oh, you should, it’ll be easier,” Jack said, nodding, “The spare room is empty, isn’t it?”

            “I don’t know, I don’t go in there,” Ray shrugged, bumping Ryan’s shoulder, “What do you say, big guy?”

            Ryan looked between Ray and Jack then shrugged. “Sure,” he said, smiling when they both grinned at him. He had no problems with having two homes, he could go back to the God’s Palace at night and stay in the penthouse during the day.

            Eventually Geoff, Michael, and Gavin decided on Monopoly which had Ray bowing out. “Fucking hate Monopoly,” he grumbled around his can of soda.

            Ryan chuckled, watching Gavin take his turn, blindly agreeing to buy every property he came across. Everyone else talked as they played. When Ryan’s turn came around, Ray sat up and they discussed their own plans. Gavin called them cheaters and Geoff yelled at them to hurry up. Michael narrowed his eyes at them while smirking and Jeremy groaned when Ray smiled crookedly back.

            Naturally they won. Ryan didn’t doubt that either he or Ray could have won on their own, but just like with any other game, they were an unbeatable team even if Ray wasn’t physically playing.

            They played themselves exhausted well into the night. Eventually, Geoff and Jack wondered off to their respective rooms while Jeremy, Michael, and Gavin piled on top of each other on the couch. Ray slowly stood and stretched, waving for Ryan to follow him.

            “You can stay here, there’s not much, but there is some furniture,” Ray said, pushing the door to a sizeable bedroom open. A bed was tucked into the far corner, partially under the large picture window against the wall. A built in closet was next to the door, creating a small hallway. A dresser was pressed against the wall opposite of the bed, next to another door leading to a personal bathroom.

            “Thanks,” Ryan said, stepping into the room and looking around. He could probably move a few things in, maybe a couple bags of weapons. He’d fill the dresser with clothes and maybe the closet with body bags, just to maintain appearances.

            “I’m across the hall, Michael, Jeremy, and Vav are next door and Geoff and Jack are in the other hall,” Ray said, turning on his heels and walking the two steps to his bedroom door, “See you tomorrow, big guy.”

            “Good night, Ray,” Ryan said, smiling as Ray gave him a lazy grin before shutting the door.

            Shaking his head, he turned back to the room, looking over the weapons and duffle bags that manifested themselves. As he closed the door, the dresser drawers opened to show off leather jackets just like the one he wore and a few black t-shirts. The closet doors squeaked open to show off a few empty body bags and rocket launchers.

            As he walked over to the bed, the dust that had coated everything disappeared and a lamp appeared along with a nightstand. The light clicked on as a couple of Ryan’s favorite plants appeared scattered about the room.

            He sat on the mattress and bounced a few times, his mask lifting off of his head and settling onto the nightstand next to a thin vase with a single rose. His jacket disappeared along with his boots, reappearing on top of the dressers, jacket folded and the boot lases untied. The drawers closed as Ryan stretched and laid back.

            He sighed as he sunk slowly into the bed, the mattress was surprisingly comfortable and the sheets were soft. His normal cow skull mask appeared hanging above the head of the bed, the carved lines pulsating blue slowly.

            Ryan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The room suddenly smelt like home, mixing with the aromas coming from the plants. The scent of the rose caught his nose and he cracked an eye open. He held his hand out and the rose floated to his fingers, the thrones not daring to prick his skin.

            He rolled the stem between his fingers, studying the soft petals. He smiled and relaxed into the bed. This place already felt like home.

 

* * *

 

            Heist meetings were not the organized chaos that Ryan had gotten used to. Everyone was either distracted, annoyed, or both. Geoff held his temples as Gavin and Jeremy argued about sex positions and Michael and Jack argued the logistics of flying a tank into the city.

            Ray and Ryan sat in silence, Ray focused on his DS and Ryan watching over his shoulder, occasionally mumbled a complaint about why there was a creature that looked like an ice cream cone. Ray would laugh lightly and elbow him.

            “Hey! Assholes!” Geoff snapped, glaring at everyone, “Focus!”

            Ryan looked up as everyone’s mouths snapped closed. Ray even paused the game he had been playing since entering the room. Geoff shot each of them a glare before taking a deep breath and continuing on with his plan.

            Ryan learned very quickly that nothing is ever simple with the Fake AH Crew. When Geoff explained the plan, everything sounded easy, they each had their job and positions they needed to reach. They had a place to be and when, timing entirely the key.

            He realized, as set up began and Gavin nearly managed to blow himself up _already_ , that everything the crew did was good in theory but all improvised in execution. How none of them were dead already was a miracle even to him, and he made miracles.

            “What the fuck Gavin!” Michael shouted over the coms, making Ryan wince when the feedback squeaked in his ear.

            Ray sighed and shook his head beside him, grinning to himself. Gavin and Jeremy were to set up car bombs to distract the police all around the city while Michael and Jack got into a cargo-bob. Geoff was getting a tank from some old friend who was a crooked military official. He and Ray were tasked with getting everyone’s escape car in place and get as much ammo and body army as they could for everyone.

            Arguing burst over the coms and Ryan tuned the sound out. Ray laughed at something someone said, triple checking that all of his guns were loaded. Ryan was driving them to where Ray would be stationed on top of a building. He would then hide the car in an alleyway for them to escape in together. Their job was to keep the police off of the others as they robbed the bank.

            “This one,” Ray said, looking out the window and up at a building.

            Ryan nodded and pulled up to the side walk. They were already an hour late. The heist was supposed to have started already. “See you later,” Ray said, nodding to Ryan before slamming the car door shut and running over to the building. All of his weapons were gone from view already.

            Ryan shook his head and tuned back into the coms as he drove to the alleyway and parked the car. He got out and rounded the car and leaned against the hood. He stood there for an hour, having pleasant conversation with Ray as the others jerked off in the background.

            “Are we finally fucking ready?” Geoff snapped, the coms falling silent.

            Ryan felt the entire air around him shift and tense. He manifested a large machine gun into his hands and pushed off of the car.

            “Leeeeeeet’s heist!” Ray’s voice echoed over the coms and Ryan smiled as the others cheered.

            A few moments later, Gavin and Jeremy sped past the alleyway in a white van while the blades of a chopper sounded above him, the large shadow of a tank edging across the ground. “Once I’m in, you’re going to have to move, Vaga,” Geoff said just before Jack dropped the tank on the ground in front of the bank.

            The ground shook as the tank fired at the wall and pieces of concrete and cinderblocks skidded past the alleyway. Ryan laughed lightly and shook his head. As Geoff rolled into the bank, Gavin and Jeremy driving the van in behind him, he emerged from the alleyway, listening to the random car bombs blowing up all over the city.

            “Copters in bound,” Jack said as Michael forced the side door of the cargo-bob open. He was tied to the inside of the helicopter, a rocket launcher secure on his shoulder. Ryan looked to the sky and saw a few black dots against the clouds.

            “They’re heading for the car bombs first,” Geoff said, the ground shaking with another explosion as the tank fired at the massive volt door in the bank. The static of a police radio filled the background.

            “We’re letting the survivors out,” Jeremy said just as civilians flooded from the bank, dusty and bloody. A few stumbled past Ryan, screaming in fear.

            He was too focused on the copters and keeping a mental eye on the police cars. He jumped when a bullet was shot in his general direction and a man with a crooked piece of a support bar fell to the ground with a massive hole in his head.

            Ryan looked down at the man as blood pooled on the ground and soaked his torn and ripped suit. Looking up again, he saw Ray waving at him from his roof. “Watch yourself, Vaga,” Ray’s voice floated over the coms.

            Ryan blinked at Ray a few times before smiling. He couldn’t be hurt, the worst thing that would probably happen was that the bar would have bent the moment it hit him. “Thanks,” he said anyway, looking back at the sky.

            “I’m taking them out before they get too close,” Jack said, steering the copter away from the bank and toward the growing dots in the sky.

            “Be careful,” echoed over the coms, Ryan’s voice chiming in a moment late. Jack and Michael laughed as they flew off.

            “Inbound,” Ray said as Ryan’s head snapped back to the ground. A few police cars were rocketing down the street, sirens blaring.

            Ryan laughed, raising his gun. The gun jerked in his arms as bullets began firing. “One more shot should do it!” Geoff said as the tank fired again.

            “We’re in!” Gavin cheered as smoke slowly poured from the bank.

            “Fucking move!” Jeremy laughed as Ryan’s gun put holes in the police cars. A few jerked off their path and into other cars as bullets bounced around in the cabs and killed the occupants.

            “Behind you,” Ray said, a bullet whizzing over Ryan’s head.

            Glancing behind him, he saw another police car skid out of control and shoot past him, missing him by inches. “Nice shot,” Ryan said, looking back at the cruisers that managed to get to them.

            “I’ll keep them off your back,” Ray chuckled, firing again.

            “Fuck, the tanks stuck!” Geoff said as Michael cursed.

            “We’re smoking!” Michael shouted and Ryan’s head snapped up. The cargo-bob was wavering in the sky, smoke coming from the tail as one of the police helicopters circled them.

            Ryan tilted his head the side and grinned as Michael’s rocket suddenly changed directions and went straight through the helicopter’s window. The cabin exploded into smoke and went down as Michael and Jack cheered in relief.

            “Vaga!” Ray shouted and Ryan’s head snapped back to the street. A flash bang laid at his feet and he snorted. He stepped over the grenade when nothing happened, continuing to fire at the line of police cars, his bullets tearing at the metal.

            “Shit, fucking pay attention, asshole,” Ray sighed, continuously firing from his nest.

            “Sorry,” Ryan sighed, watching blood burst toward the sky as his bullets pass through metal and into bodies. He supposed he couldn’t do his usual act. The others would worry if he was shot or supposedly hurt.

            “I’m abandoning the tank!” Geoff said, jumping from the tank to help Jeremy and Gavin to load the white van with money.

            “I couldn’t lift you anyway,” Jack said, coming to hover over Ryan, “Need some help boys?”

            “Incoming!” Michael shouted just as a rocket exploded behind the police line, throwing cars and bodies.

            Ray and Ryan laughed, continuing to fire at the remaining officers. Before the van was filled to bursting, Michael and Jack had to bail because the copter was close to crashing. They were hiding behind a wall, trying to help Ryan as more cop cars arrived. The copter had landed on the majority of the cops already there, but more were coming every second.

            “We’ve got the goods!” Gavin shouted, the white van bursting from the bank and speeding away from the long line of cops. Jeremy was hanging out the window, lobbing smoke grenades toward the police.

            “Jack, Michael, with me!” Geoff shouted, running from the bank as the smoke filled the air.

            “Vaga and I will keep you covered,” Ray said, still firing into the smoke and still getting perfect shots. Ryan was using his mind’s eye to know where the cops were, he didn’t know how Ray was doing it.

            “Good luck,” Jack said as she ran past, squeezing Ryan’s shoulder before following Michael and Geoff to the spare escape car Ryan and Ray had placed earlier. At the time, he thought they wouldn’t need it, now he knew that they had that car for exactly this situation.

            “We’re clear, get out of there!” Michael said after a few moments.

            Ryan dropped his machine gun and ran for the car. The small vehicle was parked an alley over from Ray’s building and he didn’t want him running into the street just to get to it. “I’m coming to you,” Ryan said, disappearing and reappearing in the driver’s seat. Doing things the human way was too much sometimes.

            “I’m coming down, be fast,” Ray said as Ryan pealed out from the alleyway and flung the car into the next. He didn’t have time to throw the gear shift into park before there was a loud thud and a dent in the roof. Ray tumbled off the side of the car, crawling into the car with a pained smile.

            Ryan blinked at him before snorting and slamming the gas pedal against the floor of the car. They shot out of the alleyway just as bullets bounced off of the brick walls and the trunk.

            “Are you okay?” Ryan said, watching Ray right himself in his seat.

            Ray leaned down and ran his fingers over his legs before sitting up with a crooked grin. “I’m fucking fine,” he said, pulling a pistol from under his hoodie.

            “That’s going to hurt in the morning,” Ryan said, already seeing bruises beginning to form on Ray’s legs.

            “Shut up and drive,” Ray laughed, turning around and looking out the back window, “We’ve got company.”

            Ryan watched Ray fire off a few perfect shots, killing the drivers in the cars behind them. His hands hovered over the wheel, letting the car drive itself.

            “We’re clear!” Jeremy shouted over the coms before two little beeps echoed in their ear pieces as Gavin and Jeremy destroyed their coms to avoid being tracked.

            “We’re almost clear,” Geoff said, panting hard, “Ray, Ryan?”

            “We’ve got a lot of heat,” Ray said, dropping an empty shell case to the floor before slamming a full one back into his pistol, “You guys okay?”

            “Geoff’s shot,” Michael said, cursing when the sound of metal being crushed filled the background, “We’ll be fine.”

            Ray and Ryan shared glances then smiled when Geoff cursed at Jack to let him shoot his fucking gun over the coms. He’d be fine.

            “We’re going to need some evasive maneuvers,” Ray said, dropping into his seat and searching the glove compartment for more ammo, “Ammo?”

            Ryan gestured vaguely behind him, a pile of ammo appearing on the backseat. Ray looked back and snorted. “Didn’t even fucking notice,” he mumbled, reloading his gun and firing behind them again.

            Ryan smiled and waited for Ray to fire his gun before snapping his fingers. Within a second, all of the officers chasing them died to a bullet appearing suddenly in front of them. Ray’s eyes widened as suddenly all of the police cars were crashing into each other.

            He slowly sat back and looked down at his gun in confusion. Ryan chuckled and slowly started to drive normally. He reached up and pulled his mask off, dropping it into Ray’s lap. “We’re clear,” he said before pulling his com out and tossing the ear piece out of the shattered side window.

            He looked at Ray who was staring at his mask in awe. He slowly looked up at Ryan, grinning. Without looking away, he pulled his com out and threw the ear piece out of the window. He looked back at the road and Ryan smiled.

            Ray didn’t comment on his long blond hair tied back with a red ribbon or strong jaw with slight stubble. He didn’t ask about the mask, just slipped the plastic skull into his hoodie pocket.

            They abandoned the car on the other side of the city, erasing themselves from the entire interior and exterior. They stole another car and drove leisurely back to the penthouse. When they arrived, the van and a car neither of them recognized were parked in the garage.

            They both gave a silent sight of relief before entering the elevator to the penthouse. Ray handed Ryan his mask back without having to be ask. He slipped the mask on before the doors slid open. When they got into the penthouse, Michael, Jeremy, and Gavin were counting out everyone’s share while Jack cleaned up Geoff’s sewed up bullet wound.

            “Welcome back!” Geoff grinned wildly at them, raising a glass of whisky at them. Ray and Ryan smiled and joined the others on the couch.

 

* * *

 

            “Ryan, you smegpot!” Gavin squawked, pouting at Ryan as his character respawned on screen.

            “What?” Ryan grinned back at Gavin as Ray laughed against his side.

            “You know what!” Gavin huffed, folding his arms. The controller slipped from his fingers and sailed through the air to hit Michael in the stomach.

            “Gavin!” Michael shouted as Jeremy laughed, his head in Michael’s lap and legs in Gavin’s.

            “Sorry Micoo!” Gavin gasped, pouting when everyone in the penthouse, including Michael, mocked how he said Michael’s name.

            Ray and Ryan laughed as Geoff’s head poked around the corner grinning at them. “Dinner, assholes,” he said, disappearing as Jack laughed.

            Shaking his head, Ray stood, shoving his DS into his hoodie pocket and waited for Ryan as Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy untangled themselves. As per tradition, Geoff made diner after a successful heist. Geoff and Jack sat at the heads of the table, Michael, Jeremy, and Gavin sitting next to each other on one side, leaving Ray and Ryan an entire side to themselves.

            They argued and debated while they ate, recounting stories that no one could remember if they were true or not. For not the first time since joining the crew, Ryan was without his mask. Even after telling them his name after the first month of working with the crew, he still wore his mask occasionally. Even now, no one but Gavin dared to ask why.

            Ryan hadn’t returned to the God’s Palace since joining the crew and none of the other gods had come looking for him, he doubt that they even would. He lived entirely with the crew in the penthouse.

            After diner, they crashed on the couch and played games until they got bored and watched a movie from the growing list of movies Ryan had never seen. He never had the heart to tell them that he knew the entire plots of every movie. Granted, watching and experiencing were very different from just knowing. Especially when Gavin started throwing popcorn and they ended up in a giant laughing pile with food thrown around the living room and at each other.

            Ryan watched everyone sleep. Jack was smooshed between Michael and Gavin while Jeremy was slumped over in Geoff’s lap, their boss snoring loudly with his head tipped back against the couch. Ray was cuddled into his side, pressing closer every time Ryan moved.

            Smiling to himself, he closed his eyes and meditated, the closest thing to sleeping he was probably going to get. He knew, as the night progressed, how the others shifted and moved. At some point, Michael and Geoff woke up and untangled themselves carefully.

            Michael managed to get Gavin over his shoulder and Jeremy up on his feet without completely waking them. When Geoff stared picking Jack up, Ryan pretended to stir awake, smiling and nodding at Geoff when he lazily waved at him.

            With little effort, because Ray weighed next to nothing, he stood with Ray in his arm and carried him to his room. The instant he was on his bed, Ray snuggled into his sheets. Ryan chuckled and sat down on the edge of the bed.

            Gently running his fingers through Ray’s hair, he watched him sleep. He still couldn’t figure out that familiar feeling he got from Ray. He also couldn’t explain why Ray was able to outdo him in all video games or in accuracy challenges with real weapons.

            The only people who could outdo gods in anyway were demi-gods, which Ray was definitely not, Ryan would have known about him by now. Well, there were also those gifted by the gods, mortals given great gifts at random to use in their future-oh. Well, that solved that mystery.

            Shaking his head, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Ray’s hair before standing. Taking a deep breath, Ryan disappeared from the room and reappeared in his own. With a snap of his fingers the light came on. He went around to each of his flowers and made sure they were healthy. The flowers glowed under his fingers, greens brighter and healthier. He was only the God of War, but he had a few epic stories revolving around plants.

            As he moved from plant to plant, he tried to remember if they had another heist soon. Since none of them had gotten injured in this one, Geoff had said that they might have another. Ryan smiled as he came to the healthiest plant in his room. The single rose had grown into a flourishing bush.

            He was hesitant to admit that this bush was his favorite, he felt drawn to the blood red petals and sharp thorns. He had never taken a special interest in roses before and some part of his infinite knowledge knew that this new found interest was because Ray said his favorite flowers were roses.

            There were many things that Ryan knew but ignored. Many of those things dealing with emotions he knew he had and didn’t exactly care for. Sighing, he ran his fingers over the soft petals of one of the flowers, smiling when the plant seemed to grow bigger at the attention.

            Shaking his head, he turned away from the bush and dropped onto the bed. Like every night, he would promise to himself to think about these things he would tuck away in the back of his mind, but he knew that he wouldn’t. Instead, he would just empty his mind and wait for morning.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan’s meditation was disturbed by his bedroom door opening. He jerked up right, blinking tiredly at Ray who stood in the door way. No one had been in his room since he joined, they all gave him that common curtesy, although he didn’t know why. Somehow, he was fairly certain that they were afraid of what they would find.

            Ray was looking around the room, hand on the door knob. He snorted when he saw the body bags in the closet. His eyes skimmed over the plants, slowly brightening along with a smile.

            “Didn’t know you had a green thumb, Rye,” Ray said, edging into the room. His eyes found the rose bush and the air seemed to be sucked from his lungs. “Woah,” he breathed, quickly crossing the room.

            Ryan smiled and watched as Ray ran his fingers over the petals of the roses. “I like plants, they’re fun to talk to,” Ryan said, loving how Ray laughed.

            “They’re so much better than people,” Ray nodded, smiling down at the roses, “They’re beautiful.”

            “That one’s my favorite.” Ryan said, slowly standing and coming to stand beside Ray.

            “She looks it,” Ray snorted, elbowing Ryan in the side, “And to think we thought you tortured people in here.”

            “There are body bags,” Ryan said, gesturing to the closet, “Right over there.”

            Ray snorted and rolled his eyes. “Jack made breakfast, asshole. Hurry up before we both miss out.”

            Ryan smiled back at Ray, following him as he walked over to the door. “I’m coming, I’m coming,” he laughed, closing the door behind them.

            Ray smiled at him again before shaking his head and walking into the kitchen. Ryan trailed behind him, that smile ingrained into his memory. He would do anything for that smile. Then he realized, as Jeremy and Ray fought over the maple syrup and Geoff and Jack tried to get the butter away from Gavin, that he would do anything to keep this, keep them.

 

* * *

 

            As suddenly as the bullet had entered Ray’s shoulder, the ground exploded, violent earthquakes splintered the ground and brought buildings down. Cops died where they stood, blood pouring from their eyes and mouths.

            The crew watched the world turn to chaos around them as people screamed and ran. Some people’s eyes glowed blue for a moment before they turned to whoever was closest to them and attacked viciously.

            “What the fuck?” Michael yelled, running over and holding onto Gavin when he slammed into him.

            “I don’t know!” Geoff shouted, trying to see past the debris and smoke billowing toward the sky.

            “Where’s Ray and Ryan?” Jack said, holding onto Geoff when the ground shook under them again.

            “Guys?” Jeremy gasped, staring wide eyed into the smoke. As Michael and Gavin grabbed onto his arms, looking into the clearing smoke.

            When the explosion happened and the earthquakes began, the ground suddenly dipped down into a steep crater. At the center, the fracturing in the ground spreading from his feet, stood Ryan, but his skull mask was gone, replaced with something much more terrifying.

            As his chest heaved, fingers curled tightly around a knife, he glared back up at the crew. On his head was a cow skull, the horns shot toward the sky, blue light bursting from the eyes and nostrils. A three point crown was carved with blue light into the skulls forehead. Lines ran away from the crown, going to the back of the skull and wrapping around the horns. The light trailed down his neck and disappeared under his clothes. His hands glowed with the light, the knife shining with the strange symbols the light made. Smoke poured off of his hands, raising to the sky with the smoldering city.

            Behind Ryan floated Ray. His eyes were closed, his hair and jacket rippling in the air, floating a bit away from him. Blood soaked his purple hoodie, a hole in the fabric where the bullet had entered.

            “What the fuck?” Geoff breathed as Michael and Gavin pulled Jeremy close.

            Ryan turned away from them and looked at Ray. The knife dropped from his fingers as he reached out and pulled Ray from the air to his chest. Once Ray was nestled safely in Ryan’s arms, the smoke, debris, and dust dropped to the ground.

            The crew tensed and glanced nervously at each other, trying not the cough, as Ryan turned toward them again. They had bad heists before, granted this one was a little worse than others. They gave up before getting any money, trying to run away from the heavy heat they had accumulated. At some point, they had gotten surrounded, all of them on the ground trying not to die. When they started running out of ammo, they knew they were in trouble. First Gavin, then Jeremy, Michael next, then Jack and Geoff with the same bullet. All of them were injured and bleeding.

            None of them had noticed Ryan slowly starting to panic except for Ray. They didn’t notice his eyes begin to glow, the trails of light edging along his skin. When Ray went to calm him, a bullet went into his chest, almost killing him, and that’s when the world went to shit. The others were blown back by the explosion, but when they managed to pick themselves up, they were completely unhurt.

            “Close your eyes,” Ryan said, voice booming and filling the world around them.

            All of them followed his commanded without thinking. When they realized what they were doing, their eyes snapped open to find that they were back in the penthouse. They looked at each other, panicked, for a moment before looking at Ryan who was gently setting Ray down on the couch. The skin of his chest perfect under his clothes.

            “What the fuck just happened?” Geoff snarled, glaring at Ryan, he instantly shied away when Ryan turned to look at him, the sockets of the cow skull completely blue.

            “Ah,” Ryan said, reaching up. The light faded away from his skin and the skull as Ryan took the skull off. “Sorry.”

            “Who the fuck are you?” Michael snapped, standing in front of Jeremy and Gavin, eyes wild.

            “Is X-Ray okay?” Gavin asked quietly, looking at Ryan in fear for the first time in a long time.

            Ryan sighed and looked down at the cow skull. “Ray’s fine, I healed him. I’m sorry about what happened. I-well. I panicked?” he said with a shrug.

            “That’s not what happens when someone panics!” Jeremy said, frowning at Ryan.

            “You destroyed the city,” Jack said, looking out the window. Everything but the penthouse was somehow destroyed.

            Ryan winced and sighed as everyone’s heads snapped toward the window. “Right. Well. That’s what happens when _I_ panic.”

            “Why?” Geoff said, glaring at Ryan.

            Ryan opened his mouth, lips twisting as he searched for his words. “I’m a war god?” he said with a sheepish shrug and awkward smile.

            No one said anything for a long moment. “That makes sense,” Jeremy said, looking very tired.

            Ryan pressed his lips together to keep from laughing when the entire crew slowly considered the idea and nodded solemnly. “Explains why you’re instantly good at shit,” Michael said, relaxing.

            “And why you never get hurt,” Jack said distantly, eyes glazed over.

            “And why weird shit always conveniently happens on heists,” Geoff sighed, rubbing his face. With their lives, this was probably the least weird thing that could be happening right now.

            “Fucking explains what just happened,” Jeremy said, grinning at Ryan in awe.

            Ryan smiled and shook his head, watching Gavin poke Ray’s cheek. “Give him a moment, he’ll wake up,” he said, startling Gavin.

            “So why did you panic?” Jack said as Gavin smiled sheepishly up at Ryan.

            “You were all getting hurt and you’re all mortal and then Ray,” Ryan scowled, gripping his cow skull tightly, “I just, I couldn’t stand the thought of losing him, or any of you.”

            The crew shared glances so quickly that Ryan would have missed them if he wasn’t a god. “What is it?” he said, narrowing his eyes.

            “So it was ultimately Ray that made you freak out?” Gavin said, giving him a shit-eating grin.

            “Yes?” Ryan said slowly, not liking the looks they were giving him.

            “Why’s that, buddy?” Geoff said, leaning over the couch.

            Ryan opened his mouth then snapped his jaw closed again. He looked at all of them with wide eyes for a long moment. “I-I’ll be back,” he croaked, disappearing from the room.

           

* * *

 

            Nothing had changed and he didn’t really expect anything to have changed. The God’s Palace was still made out of clouds with beautiful gardens and buildings from throughout the ages. Everyone still dressed in curtains and sandals. He had, apparently, been the only one called back to Earth and bothered to update himself with the times.

            He had always felt out of place in the place that was supposed to be his home, but he felt even more so now in his blood stained leather jacket and jeans. His boots left soot in the clouds and his light wilted all of the heavenly flowers. He liked Earth more, he already missed the penthouse.

            Yet, he was actually a bit afraid to go back. How could he admit to a bunch of mortals something he couldn’t admit to himself? Not to mention, they already seemed to know. Their identically knowing grins flashed in his mind again and he shook his head.

            He frowned and looked back down at his cow skull. Normally he had to wear the skull when he was in the God’s Palace. All of the gods had masks, being seen without theirs was supposedly indecent.

            “Ryan? Holy fuck man,” a voice said, startling Ryan. He rushed to put his mask on. “Where have you been?”

            Ryan sighed as he settled his mask onto his face and saw the God of Love. Blaine was smiling at him, he knew despite the heavy red and pink heart-shaped mask on his face.

            “Thought I would visit,” Ryan said carefully, rolling his eyes when Blaine dropped into the bench next to him. The cloud bench dipped under his weight for a moment before evening out again.

            “You don’t visit,” Blaine laughed, slapping Ryan’s shoulder, “You’re always on Earth.”

            Ryan huffed a sigh before tensing and looking at Blaine. There were certainly cons to telling Blaine his problem, but he wasn’t in the God’s Palace enough to face those effects. “Since you’re the god of love, I could use your advice.”

            “Wait, seriously?” Blaine said, sitting up slightly, “No one asks me for advice anymore!”

            Ryan sighed at the eager look in Blaine’s eyes. “I may have fallen in l-love and-“

            “Woah, back up,” Blain said, putting his hands up, “You? You?”

            Ryan sighed and reached up to rub his face. His fingers met bone and he groaned. “Yes, me,” he snapped, dropping his hands to his lap, “I fell in love and I don’t what to do about it?”  
            “Ryan fell in love?”

            Ryan groaned, falling back against the bench as Blaine hopped up and smiled brightly at the God of Knowledge. “Ryan’s in love, Jon!” Blaine said, slinging his arm around Jon’s shoulder. He ignored the corner of Jon’s book-shaped mask digging into his temple. “We need to celebrate.”

            “No, you don’t,” Ryan said, standing, “Never mind, I kno\ew I shouldn’t have come here.”

            “Now hold on a minute,” Jon said, smirking behind his mask as he grabbed Ryan’s shoulders and pulled him back towards them, “We’ll help.”

            “I don’t trust that,” Ryan snorted, folding his arms and glaring at them both.

            “I’m the God of Love!” Blaine huffed, pouting slightly, “Of course I can help!”

            “Blaine, no one has asked you for advice in over a thousand years, and you were never good at advice giving then either,” Jon said, shaking his head, “I’ll help, I’ve at least been to Earth in the past twenty years.”

            Ryan sighed and dropped his face into his hands as Blaine gave Jon an offended look and they began to argue. He really did hate it here. “I’m just gonna go,” Ryan said, groaning when Jon and Blaine grabbed him and started dragging him toward the Sight Pool.

            “We’ve got to see the lady first!” Jon said, pushing Ryan toward the large pool of water that was the only feature of the tall building they had dragged him into. Light shined in from the hole at the center of the tall dome.

            “Not a lady,” Ryan grumbled, turning toward the pool. He did want to make sure Ray woke up and that the rest of the crew was alright. Sighing, he waved his hand over the top of the pool, skin barely touching the water.

            Jon and Blaine were nearly in the water as they leaned over and frowned at the group of people the pool was showing them. The crew were all still in the living room, talking to Ray who was sitting up and looked dazed. The pool couldn’t transmit sound, inefficient really, Ryan was fairly certain he could fix that.

            “Which one?” Blaine said, frowning at the crew.

            “I mean, I don’t think it’s a problem if it’s all of them?” Jon said, shaking his head, “Our father is polygamous.”

            Ryan sighed and looked over each member of the crew. They were in new, clean clothes. None of them looked hurt. Ray was looking down at his jacket, pressing his finger through the fabric to his chest. Ryan slowly smiled, relaxing.

            Jon glanced back at Ryan and grinned, nudging Blaine in the side. “What?” Blaine said, following Jon’s point to Ryan.

            “Look,” Jon grinned, leaning back to follow Ryan’s gaze, “So, this one?”

            Ryan jumped when Jon pointed to Ray. “Huh, he’s cute,” Blaine said, waving his hand over the pool so that they could see just Ray.

            Ryan shot Blaine a glare, slamming his hand into the water. Jon and Blaine shared glances as Ryan turned away from the pool. “I’ll be leaving,” Ryan said over his shoulder, but Jon clamped his hand onto his before he could snap.

            “Hold it! We want to help,” Jon said, smiling up at Ryan, “It’s not every day _you_ fall in love.”

            Ryan rolled his eyes and yanked his hand free, folding his arms. “How can you two help?” he said, glaring between them.

            “Well, have you told him?” Blaine said, shrugging his shoulders, “That’s always a good place to start.”

            “Although he’s a mortal, I do believe father turned a few mortals into demigods just to keep them around, I’m sure I could figure it out,” Jon said, finger tapping his chin, elbow resting on his other hand.

            “Once you tell him, you have to court him,” Blaine said, nodding with a serious look, “Give him flowers, poems, the works!”

            Ryan frowned and rolled his eyes. He had two options, listen to these two prattle on about this or go back and face his feelings. The second option was certainly less annoying than the first. “Why don’t I do tell him then?” Ryan said, snapping his fingers before either Jon or Blaine could do anything.

            He appeared behind Ray when he returned to the penthouse. Everyone jumped, Ray snapping around with a gun ready. Ryan smiled and waved awkwardly. “Sorry,” he said slowly.

            “Is that actually your face or something?” Michael snorted, slowly relaxing into the couch.

            “What?” Ryan frowned, glancing around the room. The others looked away from him, Jeremy and Gavin wincing as they did so.

            Ray blinked up at him, letting his gun clatter to the floor and sat up on his knees. One hand on the back of the couch, he reached up with the other and pulled the cow skull up. “Oh,” Ryan said stiffly, feeling his face heat up as Ray smiled at him.

            “You’re a fucking god?” Ray said, holding the skull up until Ryan grabbed the bone and pulled it away.

            “Yes?” Ryan said slowly, glancing at the grins they were getting from the others.

            Ray looked back frowning at the others. “What?” he said, leaning away and folding his arms.

            “So uh, Ryan.” Geoff said, running his fingers over his mustache, “You didn’t say why exactly you panicked earlier.”

            Ryan tensed as Ray turned and gave him a worried look. Biting his lip, he tried to ignore the half encouraging and half amused looks the others were giving them. “Well, I’m in love with Ray and when I saw him get shot, I panicked and destroyed the city,” Ryan forced out in one breath, not looking away from Ray.

            Ray’s eyes went wide as Michael, Jeremy, Jack, and Geoff begrudgingly pulled out their wallets and handed Gavin a couple thousand each in cash. “You love me?” Ray said, jumping when Geoff stood with a stretch and groan as Gavin counted his winnings.

            “Great, so now that Gavin has won the bet and the city is in pieces, what do we do now?” Geoff said, flinching when Ray shot him a glare, “What?”

            “Hush,” Jack laughed lightly, making Geoff sit again. She clamped her hand over his mouth when he went to speak again, waving Ray on.

            Ray nodded to her before turning back to Ryan. “So, you love me, and you’re a god?” he said slowly, trying not to smile.

            “Yep,” Ryan nodded, grip on his cow skull tightening, “Sums it up nicely.”

            Ray pursed his lips and nodded, smiling brightly suddenly. Ryan gasped when Ray wrapped his arms tight around his shoulder and pulled him into an awkward kiss. For the first time since his existence, Ryan’s brain short circuited and he didn’t know what to do. Ray tilted his head and the kiss just got better and Ryan’s brain jump started again.

            Dropping the cow skull, which disappeared before touching the ground, Ryan reached up and cupped Ray’s cheeks, kissing back. Behind them, everyone groaned and handed Gavin another thousand each.

           

* * *

 

            “How did you do this again?” Geoff said slowly, still staring out the window. The entire city was back to how it was before Ryan’s outburst. Everyone acted like nothing had happened, a few people who had died had even come back to life.

            “All gods have the ability to grant miracles,” Ryan said from the couch, he had heavy bags under his eyes and was slightly pale. Ray ran his fingers through his hair, smiling down at Ryan who was using his lap as a pillow. “Depending on how big they are depends how much energy I use though.”

            “This is amazing,” Jack breathed from beside Geoff.

            “What else can you do?” Gavin said, hanging off of the back of the couch.

            “My specialty is chaos and war,” Ryan said, closing his eyes, “I’m a relatively good gardener too.”

            “Seriously?” Michael snorted, grinning over at them from the other end of the couch.

            “What? I can’t like flowers?” Ryan chuckled, smiling when Ray kissed his forehead.

            “So now what?” Jeremy said, looking around at everyone.

            “I may have an idea,” Ryan said, grinning at the ceiling, “Just give me a few hours to regain enough energy.”

           

* * *

 

            Jon and Blaine regretted the day Ryan fell in love. Since then, there were six violent and powerful demigods running around. Sometimes they would pop into the Palace with Ryan, other times they came on their own. They always left a mess trailing after them.

            At first, they all thought Ray would be the best out of the bunch. Instead of being a god of some form of chaos or death, he was the god of plants. However, he was the worst of them all. He rarely was without Ryan beside him, a fire in his eyes no one else held. There was no question, after meeting Ray for the first time, that there was any doubt that this man was exactly the kind of man the God of War and Destruction would fall in love with.


	5. Summoning Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somewhere down the line, someone had to think that this was a good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!

            Somewhere along the line, someone thought that a random design they pulled from the internet would be a good pattern to put on a pad. This person, to avoid copy right and because the large circle wouldn’t fully fit on the length of a pad, stretched the image and lightened the lines to the typical blue.

            Somewhere along the line, a CEO of a popular company approved the design and pads were mass produced with that symbol, however, thankfully, the lines weren’t dark enough. However, every automotive system has flaws and maybe one entire batch of pads had darker lines than others.

            Now, that wouldn’t be a problem if the symbol taken from the internet had been an innocent one.

            Somewhere along the line, someone who practices devil worship decided to create a website with summoning circles and tutorials. Of course, Google doesn’t tell the entire story, all the engine does is grab the image and hope that it finds something that was being sought out.

            Somewhere along the line, that package of pads landed in the hands of a young man who happened to own a uterus and desperately needed pads as cramps stabbed his stomach. He tossed the money at the cashier, ignoring her snickers, and ran out and across the street to his apartment.

            Rushing to the bathroom, he ripped the package open with some difficulty, dropped his pants, and sat on the toilet. He frowned at his boxers that had a strip of fabric sowed in for the exact purpose of him being able to wear pads. The strip of fabric was freshly red and he sighed.

            He pulled open one of the individual pads and freed the wings. He pressed the adhesive to the strip of fabric, wrapping the wings around to the back. Cleaning himself as well as he could, he stood and pulled his pants back up.

            Sighing in relief and glad he hadn’t exploded into a pile of blood, he put the package next to the toilet and slipped from the bathroom. He hadn’t noticed the darker lines on the design and he certainly couldn’t see his blood slowly following the outline of the summoning.

            Had that cultist been a fake, had a popular journal of summoning circles that did nothing at all, then there wouldn’t be a problem. However, that specific cultist owned a journal that had been passed through their family for generations. An old tomb with yellowing pages tied together and to a leather cover filled with complicated languages.

            There was just one thing missing to this overly convenient story, the summoning needed light of any kind to work. So, when the man had to pee a couple hours later, the summons was complete, much to both the man’s and the demon who answered annoyance.

 

* * *

 

            “WHAT THE FUCK?!” Ray screamed, trying to figure out how to cover himself as a tall man with black whites of his eyes and blue irises stared down at him in confusion. Horns spiraled from his head, sharp at the points and a deep black.

            “You summoned me?” the demon said, jumping when Ray stood and, while holding his pants up with one hand, started punching him out of the bathroom.

            “FUCK OFF!” Ray snarled, pushing the demon out of the room and slamming the door closed. He turned the locks and sunk to the ground, chest heaving.

            The demon frowned at the door before sighing. He could just reappear in the room, but that was probably the worst course of action for him to take right now.

            “I’m going crazy,” Ray breathed, wincing when he realized he still needed to pee. He wouldn’t be able to now, there was a fucking weirdo with horns in his house.

            The demon frowned and cleared his throat. “Excuse me, but, did you purposefully summon me?”

            Ray’s head snapped around and he glared at the door, scurrying to back away. “Who the fuck are you?”

            The demon sighed and rubbed his face. He dropped to sit with his legs crossed, knees pressed against the door. “My name’s Ryan, I’m a lower level demon.”

            Ray stared at the door for a long moment before groaning. “I’m fucking insane.”

            “No, you’re quiet sane,” Ryan said, shaking his head, “This is actually happening.”

            “What kind of demon is named Ryan?” Ray scowled, pulling his pants on correctly and buttoning them.

            “I am,” Ryan huffed, rolling his eyes. Why must everyone get on him for his name? Not all demons could be named Azazel. “Listening, did you summon me on purpose or not?”

            “Why the fuck would I summon a demon?” Ray snapped, glaring at the door, “I’m not giving you my soul!”          

            Ryan groaned and leaned forward. His horns caught on the door and he scowled. “Fuck,” he hissed, rubbing his eyes.

            “Go away!” Ray said, fidgeting where he was sitting. He really had to piss. Curse his stage fright.

            “I can’t,” Ryan sighed, leaning away from the door. He winced when he realized that his horns had dented the wood and chipped the white paint. He pressed his fingers into the marks and repaired the damage sheepishly.

            “What the fuck do you mean?” Ray snarled, hugging himself, “I’m not giving you my soul!”

            Ryan sighed again and let his hands drop to his lap, the marks completely gone. “I can’t take your soul, I can’t hurt you at all,” he said, pausing to think over his words, “Do you know anything about Satanism?”

            “No?” Ray frowned, glancing at the toilet and sighing. If Ryan hadn’t entered the room yet, he wouldn’t, right?

            “Well, look it up. The basics of it is consent. If someone does something against your will, you kill them,” Ryan said, biting his lip when he heard Ray’s pants unzip and the sound of water running, “If I was to hurt you, I’d instantly die. That’s how these things work.”

            “Hold on,” Ray huffed, trying to force himself to pee as quickly as he could, phone in hand. He clicked the first Wiki-link he saw and skimmed over the laws of Satanism. “Hey, Satanism is kind of cool.”

            “Yes, it really is,” Ryan sighed, rolling his eyes, “Look, I can’t take your soul or hurt you, but I’m stuck here until you ask me to do something and I take a payment of some sort.”

            “By some sort, do you mean not my soul?” Ray said, pulling off a long string of toilet paper. His toilet wasn’t great, but there was a lot of blood everywhere.

            “It can be your soul or something of importance to you,” Ryan said, shaking his head when he heard Ray’s pants zip and the toilet flush.

            “But I like those things!” Ray groaned, edging over to his sink. At least he got a polite demon.

            “That’s the point,” Ryan said, biting his lip to keep from laughing as the sink turn on, “You’re a strange human.”

            “Yeah, thanks,” Ray snorted, drying his hand on the towel hanging next to the sink, “I don’t want anything from you though.”

            Ryan frowned and leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling. “I can’t leave, I showed up to complete a contract. I’m bound to whoever made the contract until it is fulfilled.”

            Ray frowned at the mirror, hugging his baggy hoodie to his stomach. “So we’re stuck with each other?” he said slowly, racking his brain for anything he wanted at all. He already had top surgery and he was getting hormones soon so there was no need to ask for those things. He had a job he generally liked and friends he loved. There was nothing he needed.

            “Until you want something, yes,” Ryan said, slowly standing. Once he was on his feet, his horns were gone and his eyes looked more human. “Good news, I can’t hurt you or force you to do anything you don’t want to.”

            Ray stared at the door for a long moment before creeping over and placing his fingers on the lock. “You’re not lying to get me to come out, are you?”  
            “I promise I’m not lying,” Ryan said, staring at the door knob.

            Ray took a deep breath and turned the lock with a loud click. He cracked the door open and peaked up at Ryan who smiled awkwardly at him. Ray swallowed hard before slamming the door shut again and turning the lock. “Nope, don’t trust you,” he said, sliding to the floor, back pressed against the door.

            Ryan groaned, pressing his head against the door. “Please? I promise I’m not lying. I have to follow the laws of Satanism.”

            Ray frowned and pulled his phone out again. He glanced through the Satanism page a few more times, searching for anything that could help him out of this situation. Ryan frowned and searched for anything that would make Ray believe him.

            Ray sighed at the Wiki page when nothing came up useful and just Googling ‘how to get rid of a demon’ came up with a lot of weird shit that was useless. There was one website that had circles and tutorials on summoning that seemed useful, but all of the spells and circles required things that he would not easily find in a bathroom.

            “I’m not lying,” Ryan tried again, he had nothing else to try and convince Ray, “I can’t hurt you, in fact, I have to protect you. If you die or get hurt before the contract is complete that shit comes back on me and kind of ruins my life.”

            Ray looked up from his phone and sighed. Pressing the power button, he stuffed his phone into his pocket and stood. Ryan backed away from the door as the lock tumbled and the door creaked open.

            “Alright,” Ray said slowly, edging the door open, “You’d better not be lying.”

            “I’m not,” Ryan sighed, smiling awkwardly at Ray, “I promise.”

            Ray frowned, eyes narrowed. Ryan took a deep breath and offered his hand. “I swear that I’m telling the truth.”

            Ray frowned and looked between Ryan’s face and hand, stuffing his own into his pockets. Ryan opened his mouth then shut it again, slowly lowering his hand. Ray wasn’t dumb and he’d probably never trust him. Ryan could respect that.

            Ray shifted from foot to foot, looking Ryan over. He had short blond hair that looked surprisingly soft. He had a strong jaw with slight stubble. A head taller than Ray, he had strong arms and his tight t-shirt showed a soft stomach. “I’m Ray,” he said slowly, looking back up at Ryan.

            Ryan slowly relaxed and smiled at Ray. “Nice to meet you. I’m sorry you’re stuck with me,” he said, eyes tired.

            Ray smiled then frowned. “Wait, how the fuck did I summon you anyway?”

            Ryan’s brow furrowed and he looked lost in thought for a moment. “The circle needed to summon me needs blood and light, it’s not fancy, but that’s all it needs.”

            “The only blood on me right now is the shit coming out of my vagina.” Ray snorted, folding his arms.

            Both he and Ryan paused and looked at each other slowly. They blinked at each other a few times before Ray slowly turned and looked at the brand new package of pads resting on the ground next to the toilet.

            “No way,” Ray said, stepping aside as Ryan walked into the bathroom and grabbed one of the packages, “It’s just a pad.”

            Ryan frowned and opened the plastic covering. He unfolded the pad and frowned at the design. “This is the circle,” he said, showing the pad to Ray, “Someone just stretched it.”

            “You’re shitting me,” Ray’s nose wrinkled as he took the pad and stared at the design, “My fucking period blood summoned you?”

            “Looks like it,” Ryan nodded, picking up the package. The entire thing went up into a ball of smoke.

            Ray groaned and glared at the pad, jumping when Ryan poked the center and it disappeared from his fingers. “How the fuck did this happen?” he sighed, letting his hands drop to his sides.

            “Someone probably took the image off of the computer,” Ryan shrugged, snapping his fingers. He held out his palm as a cloud of smoke appeared beside him in the air. A fresh package of pads dropped from the cloud and into his hand. “If the lines had been lighter, it wouldn’t have done anything.”

            Ray scowled and waved the smoke away as the cloud dissipated. “Fucking great, now what do we do?”

            Ryan set the package down where the old one had been and frowned. “Well, you need to think of something you want.”

            “There’s nothing, I already said that,” Ray huffed, folding his arms, “I’m actually pretty fucking happy right now.”

            “Then you’re stuck with me until you think of something,” Ryan said with a shrug.

            Ray groaned and put his head in his hands. What was he going to do with a fucking demon? Sure, Ryan was nice and wasn’t trying to kill him, but come on. What does anyone do with a demon they don’t need or want?

            Ryan sighed as Ray began to mumble to himself. They weren’t going to get anywhere like this. “I don’t like this as much as you do, there has to be something you want,” he said cringing when Ray shot him a hot glare.

            “I just healed from my top surgery, I’m getting hormones tomorrow, I have friends and family, I don’t want to bring anyone dead back to life, I can’t think of anything,” Ray said, listing everything off on his fingers. He tensed then narrowed his eyes at Ryan, letting his arms drop. “Can I do something for someone else?”

            “Nope, it’s only for you,” Ryan sighed, shaking his head, “We don’t do charity or something heartfelt for someone else. If you don’t gain it doesn’t count.”

            “What if I gain in the long run?” Ray said, reaching for his phone. There were some charities working for people like him that could use the money.

            “Immediate. If you wanted long term you should have bleed on a different summons,” Ryan said, frowning when Ray groaned and stormed away from him, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do about this!”

            Ray glanced at him over his shoulder before sighing in defeat. “I know,” he sighed, dropping onto his couch. Ryan hesitantly followed, sitting a respectable distance away. “I’ll think of something eventually,” he said after a short pause.

            Ryan nodded and bit his lip as they fell into silence again. Ray looked tired, staring off into the distance. He sighed and looked around the apartment. The place was relatively clean, a few piles of trash and random things here and there but otherwise clean. Pictures of family and friends lined a top shelf of a bookcase full of games.

            The couch was old but comfortable, blankets were thrown over the back and the cushions had some questionable food stains. A TV sat across from them on a stand, more games were stacked next to the multiple game consoles hooked up to the TV. The coffee table was covered in old soda cans and bags of chips and old paper plates.

            Ryan’s figures itched to clean, but he kept himself in check. Ray was staring off into the distance again, frown pulling at his lips. He tensed when Ray suddenly stood and started cleaning off the table. He thought better when he was cleaning.

            “I can just-“ Ryan said, snapping his fingers. The trash disappeared from Ray’s hands and the table, reappearing in the trashcan in the kitchen.

            Ray jumped a mile and shot Ryan a glare. “What the fuck?” he snapped, edging away from the table.

            “Sorry, been wanting to do that,” Ryan shrugged, smiling sheepishly, “It’s all in the trash, I can take care of that too.”

            Ray narrowed his eyes and folded his arms. “Are you sure you’re a demon? This isn’t a trick, is it?”

            Ryan sighed and snapped his fingers, the trash bag in the can being replaced with a new one as the old one appeared in the dumpster resting against the side of the building. “I promised. No tricks. And I am actually a demon, we’re not as bad as people like to think.”

            Ray frowned and his arms dropped. He rubbed his face and dropped onto the couch again. “They told us demons were evil in church.”

            “Bah, those popes don’t know anything,” Ryan snorted, waving his hand and wrinkling his nose, “Just one of them makes a bad deal and they stop trusting demons entirely.”

            Ray snorted and smiled, looking over at Ryan and staring at him for a moment. “How old are you?”  
            “I’m only thirty,” Ryan said, smiling back, “Well, I was when I died. I don’t know how long ago that was. Hell has a weird sense of time.”

            “So there is a hell?” Ray said, sitting up slightly, “What did you do to go there?”  
            Ryan shrugged and pursed his lips. “Nothing that I recall. I think the church has it backwards actually. There are multiple gods and multiple deaths to achieve. If someone believes they’re going to heaven, than they are. If someone thinks they’re going to hell, than they are. If they don’t really care, they end up in hell because heaven won’t accept them.”  
            “Wait, seriously? So hell isn’t full of murderers and bigots?” Ray said, brow furrowing. Gears were spinning out of control in his head, some smoke threatening to flow out of his ears.

            “There are a few, of course, but not a lot really,” Ryan said, pointing to the ceiling, “Most bigots think that they’re going to heaven so they end up there,” he pointed to the floor, “Some murders realize where they’re supposed to go or just don’t care and end up in hell.”

            Ray’s eyes glazed over and he leaned back against the couch. He ran a hand through his hair. Ryan smiled as Ray thought his entire life over. “You alright there?” he said, leaning over to pat Ray’s arm.

            “My life is a lie,” Ray snorted, chuckling lightly and shaking his head, “Weird.”

            Ryan laughed and leaned back again, folding his arms. “There’s a lot of things humans don’t know.”

            “I’m not even surprised.” Ray said, looking at his consoles. He glanced at Ryan then stood. “Do you game?”  
            “Somewhat,” Ryan said, watching Ray sort through some of the games sitting on the TV stand, “Some people bring their consoles down into hell with them.”

            “Good,” Ray threw Ryan a grin over his shoulder before picking a game and putting the disk into the X-box, “I have some co-op achievements I need to get.”

            Ryan snorted then laughed, catching the controller tossed at him as Ray walked back to the couch. “Glad I could be of some use,” he said, looking over the controller.

            Ray smiled sheepishly at Ryan before looking at the game when the menu screen finally booted up. “Sorry that you’re stuck with me.”

            Ryan looked at Ray then at the screen. “I don’t think it’ll be that bad,” he said, giving Ray a smile when he looked at him wide eyed.

            Ray blinked at Ryan then laughed, shaking his head as he turned back to the game. “You’re going to regret that,” he said, shifting through the settings.

            “I don’t think so,” Ryan said, watching the screen go black and the game begin.

 

* * *

 

            “So, why are we here again?” Ryan said, frowning at the massive crowd of dancers. Their chests vibrated with the building as harsh beats blasted out of the speakers all over the club. Flashing, multi-colored lights occasionally blinded them as they moved in figure-eight all over the dancers and bar. The floor glowed in the black lights that filled in the rest of the light.

            “Michael and Gavin,” Ray grumbled, trying to cram himself into the corner of the bar. A glass of water sat next to him on the neon bar. The stools had no back and glowed purple under the black light.

            “Do they do this to you all of the time?” Ryan frowned, leaning against the carpeted wall next to Ray. No one glanced the demon’s way, Ray doubted they saw Ryan at all. No one ever noticed Ryan, no matter where Ray went. The demon shrugged off his question when he asked just telling him that not being there at all made following Ray around easier.

            “Sometimes,” Ray sighed, grabbing the glass and eyeing the water inside. He had already drank half, but he hadn’t been paying attention to the glass long enough that he was hesitant. The first time that happened was the last if he had anything to say about it. “They just want someone sober to get their sorry asses home.”  
            “You can’t drive?” Ryan frowned, taking the glass from Ray and making it disappear. He shook his head and nodded to a man a little further down the bar trying not to stare at Ray too much although he was failing.

            Ray scowled and folded his arms. “Doesn’t matter, they want me to get them a cab and shit and make sure fuckers like that don’t get to them,” Ray sighed, nodding toward the man who’s head snapped toward the dancers.

            Ryan frowned and glanced around the bar. Michael and Gavin had dived into the sea of dancers hours ago. He had seen bits of them appear at the bar a few times, grabbing heavily alcoholic glasses from the bartender before disappearing again.

            “They both get four more glasses and then we leave,” Ray said, scanning the crowd for a moment, “They’ve both already had three.”

            “You’re keeping count?” Ryan said, brow furrowed. He thought that Gavin had two and Michael only had one.

            “They won’t if I don’t,” Ray shrugged, sighing as the song changed and the glasses behind the bar began to tremble against the glass shelves they were on.

            Ryan frowned and bit his lip. He glanced around the club again, before looking at Ray. One drunk man jumped when Ryan suddenly appeared next to Ray, but figured he was only seeing things, that guy must have always been there.

            Ryan edged closer to Ray until their shoulders touched. Ray was sitting sideways on the stool to see everything around him. Ray looked up at Ryan with a raised eyebrow. “What?” he said when Ryan just smiled sheepishly.

            “Just thought you would prefer if I was visible to everyone,” Ryan shrugged, folding his arms, “A lost safer that way, right?”  
            Ray blinked at Ryan a few times before laughing and nodding. “Good idea, I’m not in the mood to deal with creeps.”

            Ryan smiled and watched Ray scan the bar. Only two days together and he already felt a strange burn to keep Ray safe. The feeling started in the pit of his stomach, spreading into his chest and up the back of his neck until he couldn’t take the nagging anymore. He blamed the unfinished contract.

            Despite how the music got louder and as the club became more packed with people, Ray found that Ryan could hear him and he could hear Ryan no matter how loud or softly they were talking. He felt like he was in a bubble, people stayed back, never pushing up against either of them. A few people looked their way, but before they could wobble over, they would change direction and disappear into the crowd.

            As Ray watched Gavin chug his forth shot of the night, he frowned as a thought hit him. “How are you doing this?” he said, glancing at Ryan for only a second before watching Gavin again.

            Ryan chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “Magic?” he said, waving his fingers at Ray.

            Ray snorted and swatted at his hands. “Yeah, I got that asshole,” he said, shaking his head, “Why are you doing it?”

            “I’m not one for crowds,” Ryan said, folding his arms again, “Neither are you considering you’ve nearly become the corner.”

            “Listen,” Ray huffed, bumping their shoulders together, “I don’t leave my apartment if I don’t have to.”

            “I know,” Ryan said, grinning at Ray, “It’s only been two days and that’s become quite clear.”

            Ray snorted and rolled his eyes. Ryan chuckled and glanced around the club. “Those two are probably pretty drunk now,” Ray sighed, slipping from the stool, “I’ll go collect the idiots and then we can go home.”

            “Done,” Ryan said, catching Ray’s hand and snapping his fingers. With a blink, they were outside, Michael and Gavin giggling and leaning up against each other on the curb.

            Ray stumbled, gripping Ryan’s hand tightly to ground himself. “What the fu-“ Ray breathed, trying to make the world stop spinning.

            “Sorry,” Ryan said, steading Ray with a hand on his shoulder, “This was easier than trying to get to them through all of those people.”

            Ray blinked at Ryan then looked down at Michael and Gavin who were wobbling in time with each other. “Thanks, but warn a guy next time,” he laughed lightly, digging his phone out of his pocket.

            “Of course,” Ryan said, putting his hand over Ray’s phone and slowly lowering his hand, “May I?”

            Ray snorted and shoved his phone back into his pocket. “Go for it man, just take us to mine. I need to make sure these idiots won’t die in their sleep.”

            “Done,” Ryan said, snapping his fingers. They appeared in Ray’s dark apartment, Michael and Gavin dropped onto the couch while Ray slowly opened his eyes. The world was still spinning, but he wasn’t nearly as disorientated as he was the first time.

            “Thanks,” Ray laughed, letting Ryan’s hand go to push Michael onto the floor. Ryan watched him move them onto their stomachs, a trashcan and bucket placed next to their heads. “They probably won’t puke,” Ray said, grabbing the blankets draped over the couch and throwing them over Michael and Gavin who had both passed out, “It’s just a precaution. They’re not _that_ dumb.”

            Ryan snorted and shook his head. He looked between Michael and Gavin before sighing. His feet left the floor and he floated onto his back. Ray raised an eyebrow at him as he folded his fingers behind his head.

            “What? My usual bed is taken,” Ryan said when he caught Ray staring at him.

            “You can sleep like that?” Ray said, folding his arms and frowning.

            “Well enough,” Ryan shrugged, placing his ankle on his knee, foot taping in the air, “Don’t worry about me.”

            Ray snorted and shook his head, turning on his heels and heading for his room. “Alright, night Rye.”

            “Good night,” Ryan said, closing his eyes and smiling to himself as the door to Ray’s room clicked closed.

           

* * *

 

            Sometimes Ray forgot that Ryan was a demon. He looked human most of the time and he was well versed in the modern world. Sometimes he would float around the apartment or snap his fingers to make life easier but otherwise he was fairly human. There was also the fact that no one else could see him most of the time, but Ray easily got used to that, no one looked his way normally anyway.

            After the first few days, he stopped being afraid of him. Ryan never forced him into finishing the contract, content to sleep on the couch and play whatever games Ray chose that day. He was in no rush to have the contract completed.

            “Are you really having frozen chicken nuggets for diner, again?” Ryan frowned at Ray, leaning against the doorway to the kitchen.

            “Uh, yeah. It’s not like it matters to you,” Ray said, shaking frozen chicken from the small hole in the giant bag, “You don’t eat anyway.”

            Ryan frowned and walked over. He snapped his fingers and the bag disappeared from Ray’s hands. The tray he had been dumping the chicken on appeared empty in the sink. The chicken that had already been on the tray, he could only hope, were back in the bag.

            “What the fuck?” Ray huffed, glaring at Ryan.

            “I’m cooking,” Ryan said, grabbing Ray by his shoulders and steering him over to the kitchen table, “I’m tired of watching you waste away.”

            “I’m not wasting away,” Ray snorted, dropping into the wooden chair anyway, “I’ll have you know that I survived off of nothing but instant Ramon for three years.”

            Ryan cringed and shook his head. “Well, you’ll never have to do that again,” he said, opening Ray’s fridge and rummaging around in what produce Ray had. He had a lot of fruits mainly because he liked them.

            Ray rolled his eyes and leaned back, folding his arms. He smiled as Ryan began to hum and dance slightly as he pulled ingredients out of the air. Pots and pans floated from the cupboards to the stove.

            Shaking his head, Ray leaned forward and rested his chin on the palm of his hand. Ryan was dancing slightly to a song in his head, smiling as he set the knife to chop vegetables on its own. Ray watched his hair bounce because it was perfect nearly all of the fucking time.

            Ryan snapped a drawer closed with his hip and Ray snorted. Ryan glanced back at him, light dancing in his eyes. “What?” Ryan said, turning to look at Ray with his arms folded.

            “Nothing,” Ray said, grinning up at Ryan.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and turned back to the cutting board, plucking the knife from the air and taking over with the blade left off. Ryan continued to hum and Ray tried to figure out what the song was.

            “What are you humming anyway?” Ray said when Ryan straightened up from putting a pan in the oven.

            “Oh, Can’t Stop the Beat from Hairspray,” Ryan shrugged, glancing back at Ray when he didn’t say anything, “What?”

            “There’s a band called Hairspray?” Ray said, eyebrow raised to his hair line.

            Ryan blinked at Ray a few times before narrowing his eyes. “Hairspray is a musical,” he said slowly.

            “Never seen it,” Ray shrugged, leaning back when Ryan was suddenly looming above him.

            “Never seen it? I don’t even belong in this era or dimension and I’ve seen it!” Ryan said, hands on his hips, “We’re watching it.”

            “Do we have to?” Ray groaned, letting his head drop back.

            “Yes we have to,” Ryan snorted, turning back to his cooking.

            “What if we can’t find it online? I’m not paying for anything,” Ray said, looking back at Ryan and folding his arms.

            Ryan snorted and his horns appeared on his head. He turned and grinned at Ray, whites of his eyes black and teeth sharp. “Demon?”

            Ray stared at Ryan for a moment before laughing and slumping in his chair. “Fucking fine asshole,” he said, smiling as Ryan looked human again and turned back to the stove.

           

* * *

 

            “Can’t stop the beat,” Ray mumbled under his breath while Ryan laughed beside him. The bus was packed and he couldn’t glare at the demon.

            “Ever since this old world began, a woman found out if she shook it she could shake up a man,” Ryan sang, smirking when Ray took a deep breath before sighing slowly.

            “I hate you,” Ryan mumbled in tune, glancing around him before shooting Ryan a glare. None of the other patrons were paying any attention to him.

            Ryan laughed and bumped their shoulders together. “What? You liked it.”

            Ray resisted the urge to roll his eyes and curled up more into his jacket, settling into the seat. Work was only a stop away and he doubted that would stop Ryan from reminding him about various Hairspray songs every time he forgot. Bastard even had a nice smooth, wonderful fucking singing voice and it was killing him.

            “Hey, have you seen Rocky Picture Horror Show?” Ryan said once they stepped off of the bus.

            Ray glanced around to make sure the sidewalk was empty before glaring at Ryan. A few people on the bus looked away as they passed. “I haven’t seen any musical before you,” he said, storming toward his work.

            “Perfect,” Ryan said, grinning after Ray.

 

* * *

 

            “What the fuck,” Ray groaned, staring blankly at the screen as the credits rolled past, “That didn’t even make sense.”

            “That’s more of less the point,” Ryan said with a shrug, “Let me think, what other musicals should you know?”

            Ray groaned and rolled so that he was half laying in Ryan’s lap. “Spare me, I have enough songs in my head,” he whined, smiling up at Ryan when he ran his fingers through his hair.

            Ryan pursed his lips then snapped his fingers. Ray looked at the TV and groaned when the introduction song of yet another musical started to play.

            Ryan grinned as Ray pressed further into his stomach a few hours later, asleep. He watched him breathe, running his fingers through short black strands. Ray’s glasses were neatly folded on the coffee table, one of the blankets on the back of the couch was thrown over him. The TV was black, having never been turned on since they got home.

            The steady rise and fall of Ray’s body had Ryan in a trance. A soft smile played on his lips and he couldn’t help but hope that Ray never wanted to complete the contract.

           

* * *

 

            “Are you sure you don’t want me to just teleport us home?” Ryan said, looking around them nervously. The moon was high in the sky and the street lights were either dim, blinking, or completely out.

            “We’re fine,” Ray sighed, rolling his eyes. That had been probably the millionth time Ryan had said that since they had left Michael and Gavin’s apartment. Normally Ray would have just crashed on the couch, but in the five seconds Ray had gone to the kitchen to get water, Michael and Gavin were making out and nothing was going to distract them. Ryan even physically appeared in the room and they didn’t notice. “Teleporting always makes me nauseous anyway.”

            Ryan frowned and looked around them again. Something didn’t feel right and normally when something didn’t feel right to Ryan, something bad was going to happen. Sighing, he stayed close to Ray and focused on their surroundings.

            Ray probably should be more nervous every time he passed a pitch black alleyway or footsteps seemed to click behind them but he had Ryan. Not only was he a demon but Ray was nearly one hundred percent certain that Ryan would never let anything bad happen to him.

            Ryan was over one hundred percent certain that he do anything to keep Ray safe but he had his limits. Something _was_ following them and he wasn’t sure if it was human or not. “Ray, I really thing I sh-“ as claws dug into Ryan’s back, he choked on his words. Ray turned as Ryan was thrown down the sidewalk, bouncing off the pavement and leaving blood stains until he skidded to a stop.

            Ray’s eyes went wide as he looked up at a heaving monster. Its eyes were bright yellow, curled horns jutted from its head. Its nose was a pig’s snout, four sharp teeth were about three inches long from the beast’s lips. Messy and matted hair hung from its head into its face. It was thin like skin stretched over bones. Massive claws dripped blood.

            The monster roared, raising a claw above its head, pupil-less eyes on Ray’s rapidly beating heart. Ray stumbled back, tripping over his own feet. He threw his arms up in front of his face as he fell.

            Before his ass hit concrete, the monster started to swing its arm down. Within a second, the beast’s arm only inches from Ray and Ryan had burst from where he had fallen into the monster. They slammed into the ground behind Ray, the beast whining and screeching as Ryan tried to avoid its claws.

            Ray scrambled to his feet, backing away as Ryan caught a hold of one of the monster’s arms and ripped it clean from the body. The monster roared as Ryan threw the arm behind him. It landed right in front of Ray, black goop oozing from the break.

            Ray scrambled away from the arm, covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve as a horrible rotting smell filled the air. Looking up again, he watched the monster’s claws dig into Ryan’s side.

            Ryan grabbed onto the arm, teeth clenched in pain. He ripped the claws from his side and ripped that arm off as well. Ray squeezed his eyes shut as Ryan lifted the stiff limb up and slammed the claws into the beast’s chest.

            The beast convulsed for a moment before going still. Ray cracked his eyes open as the rotting smell faded away. The demon turned to dust, disembodied arms and all. The dust floated away in the breeze with the smell as Ryan sat on his knees, wobbling slightly.

            “Rye?” Ray’s voice cracked as he lowered his arm and took a hesitant step forward. Ryan turned to look at Ray over his shoulders. His eyes were black again and his horns sat proudly on his head. Blood dripped from the slashes down his back and the holes in his side, soaking the sidewalk.

            Ray saw the tip of a smile on Ryan’s face before he wobbled and fell. “Rye!” he gasped, rushing over and rolling Ryan onto his back. He looked pale, chest barely moving. “Fuck, fuck. Fuck!”

            Ray looked around them, heart in his throat. There was no one around and apparently no one had heard the monster’s scream. Ray looked back down at Ryan and took a shaky breath. He should have let him teleport them back home.

            Taking a few breaths and not liking how much blood was pooling around them, Ray put Ryan’s arm over his shoulders and slowly stood. Ryan was a head taller than him and heavy. He hung limply against Ray’s side, feet dragging behind them as Ray stumbled toward the apartment. A trail of blood followed them all the way home.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan had been injured before. He’d been poisoned, ripped apart, and beheaded. Demons were more stubborn than most things, they were hard to kill. The only way to kill a demon was to completely destroy their heart, although, most people didn’t even know they had hearts.

            With time, he’d heal. The wounds would close and he’d never run out of blood. He might sleep for a few days but he’d eventually be perfectly fine.

            Ray didn’t know that.

            Ray didn’t know the first thing about demons. All he had was his faulty memory of biology and health class from high school. He couldn’t take Ryan to a hospital, not without being prepared to try and explain his horns and eyes. He was too panicked to come up with a good lie so he went straight to the apartment.

            He nearly dropped Ryan in the doorway, the adrenalin that had gotten them there wearing off. He got Ryan onto the couch and stood over him panicking for a long moment. What was he supposed to do? Ryan was still bleeding everywhere, he should probably do something about that.

            Hands shaking, Ray dragged one of the blankets from the couch to the floor before running off to the kitchen. He had a basic first aid kit that barely had enough to help with a paper cut. Scowling, he grabbed all of the packets of store brand Neosporin and tossed the white case away.

            Slipping a knife from the block, he rushed back into the living room and looked between Ryan and the blanket. Didn’t everything have to be clean? Did that matter to demons?

            Dropping everything on the coffee table, Ray ran into the bathroom and threw open the cupboard over the toilet. He grabbed every package of pads he had and rushed back into the living room.

            Nearly all seventy pads, torn apart blanket, and blood stained everything later, Ryan’s wounds were wrapped up to the best of Ray’s abilities. Regardless of the blood soaking everything, Ray sank to the ground beside the couch. The rug squelched when he sat, the fabric now blood red. His clothes and hands were soaked, blood still running down the edge of the couch.

            He was still shaking. Blood never bothered him, he would have a big problem if he as squeamish. He wasn’t sickened by the ripped flesh or the little peaks he got of Ryan’s bones. He was afraid. He was afraid Ryan would never get back up. He might still be breathing, but a human couldn’t survive that, what if a demon couldn’t either?

            Ray’s eyes and nose burned as he looked down at his hands. He slowly curled his fingers into shaking fists. Squeezing his eyes tightly, he pulled his knees to his chest and pressed his forehead against them.

            “Wake up asshole,” Ray croaked, shoulders shaking as his arms wrapped around his legs tightly, “I know what I want.”

            Ryan didn’t move, barely breathed for days. Ray always came home hoping Ryan would be in the kitchen or sitting up on the couch smiling at him. He slept next to the couch, barely sleeping so that he could listen to Ryan’s breathing to make sure he didn’t die while he was sleeping.

            Every time Ray removed the blanket pieces and pads to replace them, the wounds were leaps and bounds better. By the end of the fourth day, the scratches down his back were nothing but fading scars and the holes in his side were only flesh wounds.

            Ray sat in front of the couch, everything still stained red. He tried everything to get the color out, but nothing worked. Somehow he didn’t mind.

            He had Ryan’s limp hand in his lap and a controller in his own. As a cut scene played, Ray held onto Ryan’s hand tightly. He almost didn’t notice when Ryan’s fingers twitched. He certainly noticed when his hand was squeezed.

            Ray looked at their hands with wide eyes before nearly throwing the controller across the room in his rush to get to his knees. He turned and found Ryan blinking at him slowly.

            “Ray?” Ryan croaked, squeezing his hand again, “What happened?”

            Ray stared at Ryan for a long moment before letting go of his hand and hugging his head and shoulders tightly. “You son of a bitch!” he sobbed into Ryan’s shoulder.

            Ryan tensed then relaxed, slowly wrapping his arms around Ray the best he could. He gently petted Ray’s hair as he cried. “I’m sorry. I’m alright,” he said, pressing their heads together.

            “Alright?!” Ray snapped, leaning back and glaring down at Ryan, “You had holes in you! You were bleeding fucking everywhere! You’re lucky I had overnight pads!”

            Ryan’s brow furrowed and he looked down at himself. He pressed into the blanket wrapped around his torso, the pad crinkling under his fingers. He pressed his lips together before puffing a laugh. “Ray, this can’t kill me. The only thing that can kill me is someone completely destroying my heart.”

            “I didn’t know that!” Ray snarled, glaring at Ryan, “That-that _thing_ basically ripped you open! How was I supposed to know that wouldn’t kill you?”

            Ryan flinched and frowned, sitting up and wincing at how stiff he was. “I’m sorry,” he said, smiling sheepishly at Ray, “I didn’t think we would need to worry about that.”

            “Yeah well, we fucking do,” Ray said, folding his arms and looking away from Ryan. His nose was stuffed and a few tears still fell from his eyes. “Fucking asshole.”

            Ryan sighed and reached out. He cupped Ray’s cheek and made him look at him. Pressing their forehead together, he hoped Ray didn’t notice the soft snap of his fingers and the blood stains disappearing. “I’m sorry,” Ryan said, closing his eyes.

            Ray sniffed and reached up. He cupped the back of Ryan’s neck and tilted their heads. Ryan’s eyes snapped open when Ray kissed him. He was tense or a short moment before pressing back, fingers curling around Ray’s jaw. His eyes fell shut, not opening again when they parted for a short moment before kissing again.

            “I’m still mad at you,” Ray breathed when they parted again.

            Ryan opened his eyes and smiled at the pout Ray was giving him. “Okay,” he said, pressing their foreheads together again, “That’s understandable.”

            Ray laughed lightly, looking between Ryan’s eyes. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered, tangling his fingers in Ryan’s hair, “What even was that thing?”

            Ryan sighed and pulled back slightly. He shifted so his feet were resting on the ground, pulling Ray up onto the couch beside him. “That was a cursed soul, someone who died with regrets or a curse. They know nothing other than to consume things that seem powerful hoping that will free them,” he said, smiling when Ray pressed into his side.

            “Why was it going after me then?” Ray said, rolling his eyes when Ryan snapped his fingers and his bloodied clothes, the blanket, and pads disappeared. In their place were clean clothes.

            “Because of our contract. There’s a lot of energy bouncing between us, even if it was complete,” Ryan said, wrapping an arm around Ray’s shoulders, “It probably followed the feeling until it found us.”

            Ray sighed and frowned. He rested his head on Ryan’s shoulder. “Hey Rye?” he said, sitting up and looking up at Ryan.

            “Yes?” Ryan said, smiling tiredly at Ray. He might be mostly healed, but being injured then healing so rapidly was still a strain on him.

            “I know what I want,” Ray said, smiling when Ryan gave him a panicked look. He shifted so his knees were on either side of Ryan’s legs, arms wrapped around his shoulders. “I never want you to leave.”

            Ryan’s stared up at Ray wide-eyed for a long moment before laughing, voice still gravel. He wrapped his arms tightly around Ray’s waist and pressed his face into his shoulder. “I can do that.”

            “Good,” Ray sighed, kissing Ryan’s head and playing with his hair.

            Ryan took a deep breath, the demon in him flaring while the human part pushed words out of his mouth. “To do this, I need to know that we’re on the same page,” he said, leaning back to look up at Ray, “Do you want to be mates?”

            Ray’s cheeks flashed red and he nodded with a sheepish smile. “Yep, that’s exactly what I want,” he said with a nod, laughing at the brilliant smile Ryan gave him.

            “Then this is easy,” Ryan said, letting go of Ray and pressing the palm of his hand against his chest. Ray gasped, eyes wide with panic, as Ryan’s hand pressed into his chest, past his shirt and skin. “And its own payment.”

            Ryan smiled calmly as he pulled his hand back out and held his heart in his hand. The organ continued to beat, no blood dripping from it or Ryan’s fingers. “Put that back!” Ray said, pushing Ryan’s hand back toward his chest.

            “This is how it works,” Ryan said, grabbing Ray’s hands and kissing his fingers, “Well, if you were also a demon, you would give me your heart, but you’re not so it’s a little different.”

            Ray stared at Ryan blankly for a long moment before letting his head drop onto his shoulder. “I’m not even surprised your so fucking casual about this,” he mumbled, shivering when something wet and soft pressed against his chest, “What the fu-“ he began but stopped when he felt something _in_ his chest.

            He looked down and stopped breathing for a moment. Ryan’s hand and heart were in his chest. His ribs burned for a moment as he felt like his organs were being rearranged. He hissed as Ryan’s hand slipped from his chest, slumping over.

            “There,” Ryan sighed holding Ray tightly, “As long as my heart is in you, we’re forever bound together. I can’t die unless you do and you can’t die as long as my heart is in your chest,” he said softly, kissing Ray’s forehead.

            Ray blinked up at Ryan and smiled. He could feel their hearts beat throughout his entire body. The feeling resonated with his very being. Pressing his face into Ryan’s shoulder, he felt complete for the first time in a very long time.


	6. Three People to Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the same time there was a mad man murderer with a skull mask there was a well loved hero with a duck mask and Ray managed to find the alibi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!

            The DS’s buttons creaked under his fingers as he played, his character jumping and fighting on screen. The light illuminated his face, the characters moving in reverse in his glasses. His brown eyes didn’t flicker up when the smack of a fist connecting with bone stopped. He didn’t flinch at the smell of blood filled his nose and sobbed begs reached his ears.

            “Please, please. I don’t know,” a man’s voice sobbed. The wooden legs of a chair scrapped along the concrete and a gloved hand grabbed a warped blade from the table Ray sat at.

            As the stink of burned flesh floated into the air as a pained scream shot to the sky, a red light on the DS started blinking insistently at Ray. Sighing, he saved his game and snapped the DS closed.

            “Are you done yet?” Ray said, stuffing his DS into his purple hoodie pocket. He looked up at the leather clad man standing over a whimpering man who had smoke rising from his arm. The man’s face was incased in a black skull mask, green eyes glowing behind the darkened eye holes.

            Vagabond stared at Ray for a long moment before shrugged and stepping back. He gestured at the man before setting the still glowing knife on the table. Ray stood as Vagabond shoved his lighter back into his pocket.

            Ray stood over the man who was still whimpering and crying. His clothes were soaked in blood dripping from cuts, his nose, and mouth. Puss oozed from the burns lining his arms and legs.

            Ray grabbed a fist full of the man’s hair and yanked his head back. “Hey, do you want this to end?” he said, face unchanged at the swelled and bruised face looked up at him.

            The man nodded with a sniff the best he could. Ray let his hair go and stepped back as his chin dropped to his chest. “Then tell us what we want,” Ray said, slamming his foot against the chair between the man’s leg.

            The man flinched and sobbed, shaking under the zip ties holding his arms and legs down. “Okay, okay,” he croaked.

            “Good,” Ray said, removing his foot from the chair and turning away, “Vaga will remember everything you tell him.”

            Ray waited outside the warehouse where he had internet connection. He scrolled through twitter and news sites, smirking as he read articles about the Fake AH Crew.

            He looked up when the door to the warehouse squeaked open and Vagabond edged his way out, a gas can tilted and spilling gas over the floor. Ray snorted and leaned off of the rusting wall and stood next to Vagabond with his hands in his pockets.

            As Vagabond tried to get every last drop out of the can and onto the threshold of the door, Ray peaked around him and grinned. On the table still full of bloodied tools was a small pile of explosives. The man was staring at the pile with a dead look in his eyes.

            “Nice,” Ray snorted, looking back at Vagabond who was holding a match box out to him, “Ah, thanks buddy.”

            Vagabond shook his head as Ray took the pack and pulled a match free. He turned away and walked toward their car as Ray lit the match after two tries. Ray grinned at the fire before dropping the match onto the line of gasoline.

            The door swung closed behind him as he rushed over to the car and slipped into the passenger seat just as Vagabond pushed the car forward. They just left the warehouse district when the explosives blew the warehouse sky high.

            “He tell you everything?” Ray said, not even jumping when Vagabond’s notebook was suddenly in his face. He took the notebook and looked over Vagabond’s neat cursive. “Sweet, Geoff’ll be happy.”

            Ray saw Vagabond nod out of the corner of his eye and chuckled. Vagabond never spoke and never got close to anyone although he didn’t seem to mind Ray. Well, Ray knew that Vagabond didn’t mind any of them, Ray was just the only one willing to try. He wasn’t afraid of the glowing green eyes behind a threatening skull mask. As a result, there was always an open seat next to Ray and they were always put on missions and get away’s together.

            They sat in silence for the car ride, Ray returned to his phone and Vagabond couldn’t exactly communicate while trying to drive. When they got up to the penthouse, Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy were yelling at each other over Halo while Geoff and Jack were nowhere to be seen.

            “Hey, assholes,” Ray said, leaning over the back of the couch, “Where’s the boss?”

            “They went out a couple of hours ago,” Jeremy said, smiling at Ray and awkwardly waving at Vagabond who stayed near the door, arms folded.

            Ray scowled, but before he could complain, Vagabond was suddenly beside him, handing him the ripped pages of the notebook. Ray blinked at the pages for a moment before taking them with a shrug. “Alright, see you later big guy.”

            Vagabond nodded at each of them before leaving the apartment. All of the lads were silent until the door clicked close. “Weird fucker,” Michael mumbled, unpausing their game.

            “How do you deal with him X-Ray?” Gavin said, leaning his head back on the couch to look at Ray upside down.

            “He’s not that bad,” Ray snorted, pushing Gavin’s head.

            “He’s terrifying!” Jeremy said, shifting awkwardly in his seat. He was new to the crew and still very nervous around Vagabond while the others, minus Ray, were only slightly nervous around him.

            Ray rolled his eyes and headed for his room. “Let me know when Geoff and Jack get back,” he said, not feeling up to the same old argument.

            He got a few grunts as the game drew the others attention again. Ray shook his head and slipped into his room, stuffing the papers into his pocket. Pulling out his DS, he grabbed the charging wire still plugged into the wall and started charging the DS.

            Vagabond wasn’t that bad, he knew better than anyone that Vagabond would risk his own life for any of them. He had no desire to see him mask-less or hear him speak, they all had their own shit to deal with and each of them dealt with that differently. Then again, Ray had never been like the others when dealing with other people.

            Geoff and Jack returned from heist planning an hour later. It took Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy shouting his name before he was snapped out of game focus. Shuffling from his room, he threw the papers at Geoff before heading for the door.

            “Did you clean up the evidence?” Geoff called after him, handing some of the papers over to Jack.

            “Blew the place up,” Ray said, opening the front door, “I’m heading out!”

            “Be back for diner!” Jack said before the door closed. Ray smiled and shook his head, leaving through the garage.

            He walked for a few minutes, taking dark alleyways and crowded sidewalks before coming to a small flower shop on the other side of town. Smiling at the vases of flowers on display in the large picture windows, Ray walked to the door and push the glass door open. A small bell rang above his head.

            A tall man wearing a black t-shirt and ratty jeans stood behind the counter. He was looking down at a newspaper spread out on the counter next to the register. He jumped when he heard the bell, looking up and smiling brightly at Ray. His right eye was blue while his left was green. His soft blond hair was short and swept to the side, faint stubble lining his jaw.

            “Hey Ray, how are you?” the man said, folding the newspaper up, “You’re here early today.”

            “Got off of work early,” Ray shrugged, walking toward the wall filled with various flowers of varying colors, “How are you, Ryan?”

            Ryan smiled, sitting down on a stool directly behind the register as he watched Ray look over the flowers. “I’m alright, it’s been a slow day.”

            Ray nodded and reached up and took a couple of roses from the wall. “Mind if I hang around?”

            “You’re always welcome to be here,” Ryan said, smile softening as Ray turned and grinned at him over the multicolored roses in his hands.

            “Thanks,” Ray said, walking over to the counter. Ryan didn’t bother ringing up Ray’s purchase, he just opened the register and waited for Ray to dig a few crinkled bills from his pockets. He hadn’t changed his prices in years and if Ray wasn’t so dedicated to his other job, he would have been hired to work in the shop years ago.

            Ryan quickly put the money into the register before snatching up one of the flowers. He leaned over the counter and tucked the rose behind Ray’s ear and smiled brightly at him. “There,” he said, loving the light blush Ray tried to hide.

            “Asshole,” Ray grumbled, shaking his head and rounding the counter, flowers in hand. Ryan gave up his seat and leaned back against the counter as Ray sat on the stool.

            Ryan grinned and chuckled, asking Ray about his day. They talked until half an hour before Ryan closed. Ray’s phone buzzed with a text and he scowled at the message for a moment before sighing and slipping from the stool.

            “I’ll see you later, Rye,” Ray said, waving to Ryan before leaving the store.

            Ryan waved back, smiling after him. Ray had stumbled upon the store about a month after Vagabond joined the crew three years ago. He saw some of the most beautiful roses he had ever seen in the window and went in. Ryan smiled brightly at him and seemed unfazed that one of the cities most wanted criminals wanted to buy roses from him.

            Ryan later admitted that he thought if he was nice, Ray and the crew wouldn’t blow up his shop which was completely correct. Ray didn’t have crushes on people and certainly didn’t think about love all that often, but he was certain he had a thing for Ryan. The past year had been the worst, Ryan started obviously flirting with Ray.

            Ray looked down at his roses and smiled to himself, reaching up and brushing his fingers over the petals of the flower behind his ear. He could still faintly feel Ryan’s fingers lingering in his short black hair.

            Taking a deep breath, Ray looked ahead of him, smiling like an idiot. Ryan was such a nice guy, sometimes he made weird murder jokes, but he was also the type of guy to look sick every time he pricked himself on the throne of a rose.

            Ray bit his lip and sighed. He had forgotten, conveniently, to ask Ryan on a date, _again_. He was tired of dancing around each other. Ryan didn’t mind that he was a criminal and Ray was a little head over heels for the first time in a very long time. They needed to go on a date damnit.

            Ray turned down an alleyway, stopping short when he heard shouting. Frowning, he looked up and saw darkened figures on the other side of the alley. One was cowering against the grimy brick wall while three others towered over them.

            “Give us the purse lady,” one of the tall figures said, the silhouette of a gun in his hand.

            “N-no!” the cowering figure said, pressing more against the wall.

            “Give it to us now or this won’t be good for you,” one of the other figures snarled, jerking a knife toward the woman.

            Ray frowned and shook his head. Not only were these idiots threatening someone, they were doing so in his crew’s territory. Slipping the back of his hoodie up, he reached for his gun hiding under his clothes.

            Before his fingers could wrap around the handle, a figure rushed past him. Ray’s eyes widened as a blue hoodie with the hood up burst down the alleyway toward the figures. A bow was raised up, an arrow on the string while two others were in the man’s hand.

            Ray watched the man fire all three arrows within a second, hitting each of the men towering over the woman. Ray tensed as the woman gasped, relaxing only when he heard the men yell and complain as the blue hoodie kicked their weapons away.

            “T-Thank you,” the woman breathed as the blue hoodie looked at her. Ray saw the bill of a duck mask and scowled.

            “Hey!” he shouted, running toward them, pulling his gun. The man in the duck mask looked back at him, blue eyes glowing behind the mask and bow in hand. Instead of raising his bow, the man took off, disappearing around the corner.

            The woman screamed as Ray ran past her. He turned the corner and stopped short, looking both ways down the empty street. The duck mask was nowhere to be seen.

            “Shit,” Ray growled, turning back toward the alley. The woman looked up at him with big, scared eyes, clutching her purse in front of her. Ray sighed and offered her an awkward smile, slipping his gun back into his waist band and holding one of the roses out to her. “Go home, be safe.”

            The woman ran away without taking the rose, the click of her heels fading as Ray sighed. He looked down at the men who were struggling to pull the arrows that were buried in the ground, pinning their clothes.

            “What were you thinking?” Ray said, crouching down to look at one of the men, “This is Fake territory.”

            The man looked up at Ray and his eyes went wide, heart nearly bursting from his chest. “BrownMan,” he breathed, fingers tightening around the arrow, “Wait, please, don’t kill me!”

            The other two men looked at Ray and stared whimpering and begging. Ray shook his head and stood, pulling his gun free again. Three silenced gun shots later, Ray walked from the alleyway with one of the arrows and blood splattered on his jeans.

            The arrow had taken quite a bit of effort to pull from the pavement, but once he wiggled the shaft free he found that a small battery powered drill on the end. Ray frowned and spun the arrow between his fingers.

            “Fucker has specialty arrows?” Ray mumbled to himself before deep sighing. The man in the duck mask had been named The Duck (Ray still thought that was the funniest and least creative name ever). He was some vigilante bastard running around protecting people.

            Normally, Ray and the crew wouldn’t care, but the fucker was fucking with Ray’s drug empire and the gangs allied with them. Sending important members to jail and helping others reform. Ray had lost some of his best dealers to Duck’s efforts to get people clean.

            Ray honestly wouldn’t care if getting his people clean meant turning them against him. Some of his best people were clean, but still worked for him. Ray sighed and looked down at his flowers. “Ah shit,” he huffed, pulling one of the white roses free from the bunch. Little specks of red dotted the crisp petals.

            He spun the stem between his fingers, arrow still in hand. He pursed his lips then grinned. When he got to the penthouse, he handed the arrow over to Jeremy to give to their info guy, Matt. Giving a vague explanation of what happened to the others questions, Ray rushed to his room and added the roses to his full vase of flowers.

            He kept the blood spotted rose in hand, placing the flower in a smaller vase by itself. The next day, when Vagabond decided to show up to the penthouse, Ray disappeared into his room then ran back in. Vagabond stared at the rose being placed in his hand before looking up at Ray.

            Ray just grinned back, holding Vagabond’s gaze. They stood there for a long moment before Ryan raised the flower up to his mask, slipping the stem into the eye hole. The flower completely blocked that eye’s vision, leaving him only his left green eye.

            The others watched in confusion as Vagabond’s shoulders shook with a silent laugh as Ray stared at the masked man with wide eyes. Ray was suddenly reminded of Ryan’s eyes before shaking his head. There was no way, Ryan nearly passed out at the thought of blood.

 

* * *

 

            Ray leaned against the brick running along the side of Ryan’s shop. He took a few deep breathes and rubbed his sweating palms against his pants. He could do this, he could totally do this.

            “I can’t do this,” Ray groaned, letting his head drop back against the brick. He, a hardened criminal who had faced some of the worst things humanity could throw at him, couldn’t ask someone out on a date.

            To be fair, who would say yes? So what if Ryan was flirting with him? That was a date with death, Ryan might like him back but didn’t want to risk the danger. Which was something Ray hadn’t thought about. What if he did put Ryan in danger? He didn’t hide who he was like Vagabond did.

            Ray frowned and looked at his feet. Maybe he needed to really think about this. He didn’t necessarily need romance in his life and Ryan didn’t need to be in more danger than he already was. Ray already frequented the shop.

            Ray glanced around the corner and felt a pang in his chest. Sighing, he pushed off of the wall and wondered into the shop, forcing a smile when Ryan smiled at him. “Hey Ray, are you alright?” Ryan said, frowning as Ray wondered aimlessly around the shop.

            “Fine!” I’m fine,” Ray said too quickly. He winced and glanced back at Ryan whose brow was furrowed with worry.

            “Are you sure?” Ryan said, leaning over the counter, “You look sad.”

            “I-“ Ray started then sighed. He looked at the flowers and picked a bright purple violet. He bit his lip and turned on his heels and hurried over to the counter. The worst he could say was no. “I wanted to ask you on a date, but then I kind of thought that was dumb because who would want to date me?” he laughed awkwardly, shoulders bunching up in a cringe. That came out more self-hating than he wanted.

            Ryan’s eyes widened and Ray looked at his feet. He was being strangled by the silence, squeezing the stem of the violet between his fingers. “Right, I’m just gonna-“ Ray said, slapping a few too many bills on the counter before turning to leave.

            “Woah, wait a second!” Ryan gasped, grabbing Ray’s shoulders and turning him around, “I would love to go on a date with you,” he said, smiling at Ray.

            Ray looked up at Ryan in shock before slowly smiling. “Really?” he said, leaning over the counter slightly.

            “Yes, of course,” Ryan laughed lightly, squeezing Ray’s shoulders before letting go, his fingers lingering for a second longer than necessary, “I’ve been trying to work up the courage to ask you, actually.”

            Ray smiled brightly and pushed himself up on the counter, leaning over to kiss Ryan’s cheek. His phone buzzed in his pocket but ignored the feeling. Ryan was blushing at him, smiling like an absolute idiot.

            “Tomorrow?” Ray said, setting his feet back on the ground.

            Ryan blinked away his daze before nodding quickly. “Sure, I know a nice diner, want to meet here at five?”

            “Perfect,” Ray breathed, laughing as they shared idiotic smiles. His phone buzzed again, this time continuously. Scowling, he dug into his pocket and glare at Michael’s name flashing at him. “I have to go,” he sighed, pressing the green phone on the screen, “See you tomorrow?”

            Ryan nodded and leaned over the counter to kiss Ray’s cheek back. “See you tomorrow,” he said, waving as Ray left the store with the phone pressed to his ear and a light blush on his cheeks.

            “Dude, you ruined my moment,” Ray hissed into the phone once he was out of the shop and walking down the alleyway.

            “Sorry,” Michael snorted, Ray could see his sarcastic grin, “The lads and I wanted to know if you want to go rob a convince store.”

            Ray pursed his lips and sighed through his nose. He could go back and tell Ryan they didn’t need him, or he could burn off this excitement bubbling in his chest. He wouldn’t be able to sit still if he went back now. “Yeah sure, pick me up on Liberty Street.”

            “See you soon, asshole,” Michael laughed before hanging up.

            Ray smiled and shook his head, dropping his phone into his pocket. His cheek still tingled from where Ryan had pressed his lips. The excitement tightened in his stomach as he took off running, the violet being tucked behind his ear.

            Ray vibrated once he was in Michael’s car, guns and grenades being pressed into his hands. He kept hiding the weapons until he had nowhere else to put them. “We’re hitting one after another,” Michael said over his shoulder. Gavin sat beside him up front, bouncing in his seat. Jeremy sat next to Ray, rechecking his guns.

            “Sweet,” Ray nodded, checking to make sure all of the guns and knives on his person were in their correct places. They knew what they were doing, there was no need to discuss a plan. This was a normal lad’s day out after all.

            As soon as Michael pulled up to the first gas station, they all hoped out except for Michael. They walked in with hands in pockets and relaxed stances. Ray grabbed a few bags of chips while Jeremy and Gavin argued over what sweets Michael would want.

            Once Ray was done scoping out the store, he whistled softly as he passed Jeremy and Gavin toward the counter. The cashier popped her gum, barely looking at Ray. She definitely noticed when a gun was in her face suddenly.

            “Money in the bag,” Ray said as Jeremy appeared beside the woman with a duffle bag, “Now.”

            The woman shook as she turned toward the register and slammed the cash drawer open. Ray saw her hand twitch to the button under the counter and shot before she could get close. Jeremy grabbed the tray and shook the bills into the duffle. Ray waved to Michael through the glass door while Gavin planted explosives.

            They walked out as casually as they entered. Once they were at the next hit, Gavin pressed the detonator and the ground shook with the first explosion and then the second as the pumps caught fire. The lads all grinned at each other before repeating the process for two more stations.

            “I’m hearing sirens,” Michael warned as they jumped out of the car at another station, “Be fast.”

            “We’ll be fine Micoo!” Gavin said, only taking a step forward before being suddenly being yanked back as an arrow caught his clothes and dug into the frame of the car.

            “Gavin!” Michael shouted as Ray and Jeremy pulled their guns, looking around. Ray caught sight of a fast moving blue blob. He follows the shape, just seeing a yellow bill of a duck mask and scowled.

            “We need to go!” Ray said, pushing Jeremy toward the car, eyes still following Duck.

            “I can’t get Gavin free!” Michael said, out of the car and yanking on the arrow.

            Ray frowned and shot once at Duck before turning toward the others. Jeremy and Michael were both trying to pull the arrow free. The sirens were getting louder as Ray pulled a knife free and cutting the shaft of the arrow.

            Once the wood dropped to the ground, Ray yanked Gavin from the remaining shaft before shoving him into car. “Go!” Ray snapped at Michael.

            Before Ray could try to get into the car, something brushed his leg and then his pants were caught. Looking down, he saw another arrow vibrating slightly with a quiet buzz. He looked up and saw Duck staring at him across the gas station lot.

            “Ray!” Jeremy gasped, grabbing Ray’s arm and trying to pull him into the car.

            “Hold on!” Ray said, kneeling down and trying to cut the shaft. Another arrow hit his blade, spinning it out of his hand, but he pulled out another quickly enough to cut the shaft and dive into the car before another arrow could be shot. Michael shot away from the gas station and Duck just as the first police car showed up and an arrow burred itself into the door, the head poking past the plastic lining the door.

            “Holy shit!” Michael said, turning a sharp corner as Jeremy and Gavin looked behind them. Ray looked out the window, watching Duck load another arrow. The vigilant disappeared around the corner just as the arrow was let loose.

            The car suddenly dipped on one corner. “Fuck! The tires been shot!” Ray said, scrambling up right and looking out the window. The police cars were appearing behind Duck who had another arrow aimed at their car.

            Ray forced Jeremy down as Michael continued to try and push the car forward, just around the corner. They stayed down, although the arrow never came and the sirens faded slightly.

            “We’ve gotta bail!” Michael said, pushing Gavin out of the car before following him out.

            “Every man for himself!” Ray said, bursting from the car and bolting down the nearest alleyway. He glanced back in time to see Jeremy shoot down another alleyway and Michael drag Gavin down another, the duffle on his back.

            He looked back and nearly ran straight into Duck who was standing tall, bow at his side, in the alleyway. Ray skidded to a stop, pulling a gun and backing away. Duck’s bow was up, an arrow notched with another in the same hand that was holding the string. They stared at each other for a long moment the police cars roaring past the alleyway without looking down at them.

            Ray frowned and weighed his options. He could turn and run and get shot, he could shoot Duck, but that arrow had a slowly blinking light on the tip and a few wires winding out. That was a bomb, an explode-on-impact kind of bomb.

            Ray took a deep breath and slowly lowered his gun. Duck hesitantly followed his lead. “So uh, I’m just going to leave,” Ray said slowly, taking a step back. Duck didn’t raise his bow, watching him slowly back out of the alleyway. As Ray turned and ran from the alleyway, he felt Duck’s eyes on him all the way back to the penthouse.

           

* * *

 

            Duck watched Ray run down the alleyway. He carefully put the arrows into the quiver hanging from his hip. Once Ray was completely out of sight, he ripped off his mask, making his hood fall back to show short blond hair and pressed his hand against his face.

            “Stupid, fucking,” Ryan groaned, slamming his palm against his forehead, “Fuck!”

            Ryan sighed and pinched his nose. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the mask back on and pulled the hood up. He ran toward his shop, one hand tightly gripping his bow while the other made sure the arrows didn’t spill from his quiver.

            He entered the shop through the back door and went for his office. He quickly removed his jacket and mask, stuffing them with his quiver under his desk, against the left side. He then grabbed a leather jacket and black skull mask from the right side. Standing up right, he tossed the mask and jacket onto the desk top before grabbing a mirror from the top drawer of the desk.

            Although his hands were shaking and his stomach was twisted into knots, he carefully removed the contact from his left eye. From the same drawer, he pulled out a contact container. He only opened the left container which was empty. He dropped the contact in before closing the container and opening the right. He placed the contact into his right eye and blinked a few times.

            Bright green eyes blinked at him where blue ones had been before. Sighing, he pulled the mask on before slipping into the jacket. He rushed out of the shop, grabbing a few hidden weapons.

            He ran all the way to the penthouse and tried to calm his breathing in the elevator. When he finally got into the penthouse, Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy were on the couch being both lectured and worried over by Geoff and Jack.

            “That Duck fucker showed up and ruined it, we would have been fucking fine,” Michael snapped at Geoff, waving Jack away from the small cut on his cheek, “Ray’s fine, he knows this city better than anyone.”

            “That’s not the point!” Geoff snapped, folding his arms, “We can’t pull our heist now because of this! You shouldn’t have gone out in the first place!”

            Ryan tuned their arguing out. Ray wasn’t back yet. He hadn’t seen where he had run off too, but he hoped he would be back by now. His chest tightened until someone behind him rapped their knuckles against his back.

            Ryan’s head snapped around and looked down at Ray who was panting hard, grinning up at Ryan. “Hey there big guy, can I come in?” he said, knocking on Ryan’s back again.

            Ryan smiled in relief, stepping aside and closing the door behind Ray. “There you are!” Jack gasped, rushing over and looking Ray over for injury, “Are you alright?”

            “I’m fine,” Ray said, letting Jack hover over him as he walked to the couch, “Had a few close calls with the cops, but I’m fine.”

            “See, told you,” Michael said, smiling at Ray, just as relieved as the rest of them.

            “Did you see that Duck fuck again?” Jeremy said as Ryan came to stand behind Ray.

            “I did, he caught me in an alleyway but let me go,” Ray said, leaning back against the cushions.

            Ryan breathed out a sigh of relief silently. No one noticed him hovering near Ray more than normal, he doubted they would. He knew that they thought that he favored Ray over all of them. He cared about all of them, but he did love Ray. Wouldn’t have agreed to a date if he didn’t.

 

* * *

 

            Ray was beaming as he walked to Ryan’s shop. He had to untangle himself from the other lads to get going on time. They wanted him to stay and play games with them, but he managed to escape.

            When he turned the corner he was met with a large bouquet of every single one of his favorite flowers. Ray blinked at the flowers before peaking above the bouquet. Ryan stood on the other side, smiling sheepishly at Ray.

            “Here,” Ryan said, pushing the stems into Ray’s hands.

            “Thanks Rye,” Ray said, taking the flowers and looking over the countless petals.

            Ryan smiled brightly at him before offering his arm. “Ready to go?”

            Ray placed his hand on the crook of Ryan’s arm. “Yeah, where’s this diner of yours?” he said, trying to see over the flowers.

            “It’s not far, just a block away,” Ryan said, pausing in front of the shop door, “Do you want to leave those here so you can see where you’re going?”

            “Yeah, that works,” Ray laughed lightly, handing the bouquet back over to Ryan. Once the flowers were put away and Ryan clasped their hands together, they were on their way again.

            Ray felt his face heat up, the warmth stemming from their pressed together palms. The dinner was a small, family owned business. Everyone seemed to know Ryan and gave them knowing smiles.

            “They uh, I’ve been going here since I moved here,” Ryan coughed awkwardly, shooting a glare at the cook and waitress grinning at him from the order window.

            Ray laughed and waved at the staff who happily waved back. “They seem nice,” he said, looking back at Ryan, “You’re here every day?”

            “For breakfast,” Ryan nodded, playing with the menu without looking at the printed letters, “Sometimes for diner.”

            Ray nodded and looked over the menu before looking up at Ryan again. “What’s good?”

            “Everything,” Ryan said, laughing when Ray gave him a tired look, “What?”

            “That’s not helping,” Ray snorted, looking at the menu again.

            “Sorry, but it’s true,” Ryan shrugged, leaning his chin onto the palm of his hand. He watched Ray with a soft smile.

            Ray looked open, mouth open to shoot back a sarcastic comment, then paused when he saw Ryan watching him. He blinked, closing his mouth before smiling. “Like something you see?” he said, smirking when Ryan was jarred out of his daze and blushed.

            “Maybe,” Ryan said, leaning forward more, “You are very handsome and adorable.”

            “I’m handsome? You’re a fucking god,” Ray snorted, folding his arms, “And I’m not adorable, I’m manly as fuck.”

            “Whatever you say,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes. He leaned back, but left his arm on the table, palm open to Ray.

            Ray looked between Ryan’s hand and face before smiling and hesitantly placing his hand in Ryan’s. Their fingers curled around each other and they didn’t let go until their food arrived and they needed both hands to eat.

            When they left, the staff saw them out with plenty of knowing grins and coos of how cute they were. When they finally got out the door, Ryan’s head was dropped into his free hand, squeezing Ray’s tightly with the other.

            “I like them,” Ray laughed, bumping their shoulders together.

            “Of course you do, they’re embarrass me,” Ryan snorted, peaking between his fingers.

            “Exactly,” Ray nodded, laughing when Ryan let go of his hand and started poking his sides, “Hey!”

            Ryan laughed and wrapped his arm around his waist. Ray smiled, pressing into Ryan’s side. “So, I was thinking that we could go to either my apartment or yours and play games? Maybe watch a movie?” Ryan said carefully.

            “I’m game,” Ray said, placing his hand over top of Ryan’s, “As long as you know that I’m going to kick your ass at anything we play.”

            “That good, are you?” Ryan said, squeezing Ray gently, “You’re always bragging about your gamer score.”

            “Fuck yeah I’m that good,” Ray said, threading their fingers together.

            Ryan laughed and smiled. He could shoot back with a cocky response, but he knew better. Ray did whoop his ass at everything they played until Ryan put in a trivia game.

            “I didn’t graduate high school, what do you want from me?” Ray yelled at the game when he was wrong, yet again.

            “The right answer?” Ryan said, laughing when Ray shot him a glare.

            “Quiet you,” Ray huffed, lightly punching Ryan’s shoulder, “You know weird shit.”

            “I know things any reasonable person would know,” Ryan said, putting his hands up to protect his head when Ray pulled a decorative pillow from under him to whack Ryan with.

            “No one offhandedly knows how long a hermit crab lives, Ryan.” Ray huffed, dropping the pillow between them, “Or what the plastic piece on shoe laces is.”

            “Those are perfectly normal things to know!” Ryan said, tossing the pillow to the other side of the couch, “I had a hermit crab as a kid and did research and there was some kid’s show who had a special on the aglet.”

            “You watch kid’s shows?” Ray said, raising an amused eyebrow when Ryan smiled at him sheepishly.

            “Sometimes there’s nothing else to watch,” Ryan said, shrugging. He narrowed his eyes when Ray smiled brightly at him. “What?”

            “Have you ever seen Steven Universe?” Ray said, shifting a bit closer to Ryan.

            Ryan frowned and thought for a few moments. “No, I don’t think so.”

            “Cool, we’re watching it,” Ray said, exiting out of the game and navigating to the x-box connection to the internet.

            “You just want to stop losing,” Ryan said, tossing his controller onto his coffee table.

            Ray snorted and gave Ryan an overly offended look. “Of course I do,” he said, smiling when Ryan laughed.

            By the time they watched every episode, they were both extremely tired and the sun was starting to rise again. “I can’t believe we just watched everything,” Ryan said, staring hard at the screen to keep his eyes open.

            “Did you like it?” Ray grinned, slumped down on the couch. His eyes were only half open, glasses skewed on his face.

            “That was awesome, Peridot is my favorite.” Ryan said, looking over at Ray and grinning, “We should sleep.”

            “I’ll take the couch?” Ray said, yelping when Ryan suddenly picked him up and walked toward the small hallway next to the kitchen.

            “My bed is big enough,” Ryan slurred slightly, wondering into the bedroom and dropping onto his bed. He curled around Ray, nearly asleep already.

            Ray laughed lightly and pushed them to lay properly on the bed. He slipped his pistol from his waist band and put the gun under the pillow. He settled down and laughed lightly when Ryan subconsciously pulled him closer. He pressed into his chest and fell asleep much faster and much deeper than he has his entire life.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan was on cloud nine, even after Ray left his apartment with a kiss to his cheek. He opened the door to his store with a goofy smile on his face. He set up for the day in a daze, remembering waking up with Ray curled up against him.

            He never dreamed of Ray actually liking him back, well, not if he was Vagabond all of the time. Ray understood him and had an easy time dealing with him when he was the Vagabond. He couldn’t develop feelings for a mute weirdo in a skull mask.

            Ryan sighed, standing in front of his desk. What was he going to do about that? Keep Vagabond and Duck from Ray? He probably didn’t have a choice in that matter. Ray dealt with Vagabond and hated Duck. Not only that, but they had known each other for three years. He could see Ray being very upset at him for not telling him then, how mad would he be now that they were dating?

            Ryan rubbed his face and sighed. He had done well this far to keep everything a secret, he could do it for some time longer, probably. “That’s going to bite me in the ass,” he mumbled before leaving his office.

            Every night, Ray and Ryan would go out for diner then go to Ryan’s apartment for games, movies, or a marathon. Ryan began to find Ray’s things staying in his apartment and smiled. Everything with Ray had been effortless, from their friendship to transitioning to dating.

            The first time they kissed was just before a huge heist. Ryan shouldn’t have known, but of course, he wasn’t just Ryan. Regardless, when Ray ran into the shop and kissed Ryan hard, arms wrapped around his shoulders, fingers tangling in his hair, he pretended to be confused when they parted.

            “What was that for?” Ryan breathed, smiling at Ray, hands on his hips.

            Ray bit his lip, looking between Ryan’s eyes. “I know you know who I am,” he said carefully, smiling when Ryan squeezed his hips, “We’re doing a heist tomorrow and I wanted to kiss you before that.”

            Ryan nodded slowly before reaching up to cup Ray’s cheek. “I’m glad you did,” he said softly. Ray laughed lightly before they kissed again, softer this time.

            Ray had to leave shortly after, so did Ryan, but he kept his mouth shut. Once Ray left, he slipped into his office and changed into Vagabond. This was going to be weird now, switching between all three of himself.

            The heist went off with about a million hitches, but they lived. If Vagabond focused on protecting Ray, no one, especially Ray, seemed to notice. Once they were free to be outside again, Ray ran from the penthouse and Ryan took a few minutes to realize where he was going.

            Geoff and the other Fakes didn’t know what to make of Vagabond bursting from the penthouse, but they wrote that off as him being Vagabond.

            Ryan ran through a shortcut he was fairly certain only he knew. He arrived at his shop first, throwing off his jacket and mask, almost forgetting about his contact. When Ray arrived, calling his name, he almost poked himself in the eye, jumping. “Hold on a moment!” he called back, pulling the contact out and putting it into the container.

            “Ryan!” Ray gasped, standing in the door way of his office, breathing hard and smiling brightly.

            “Ray! What are you doing here?” Ryan said, hoping Ray took no notice of the mirror he set down or how out of breath he was.

            “We finished the heist and we fucking lived although Gavin nearly blew us up.” Ray said, holding onto Ryan when he walked over to him.

            Ryan listened to Ray’s story, ignoring the parts that were over exaggerated. Instead, he wrapped his arms around him and enjoyed what Ryan was able to do that Vagabond couldn’t even though, when they got back to the penthouse, Ryan wanted nothing more than to hold Ray tightly.

            “I’m glad you’re alright,” Ryan said, kissing Ray’s forehead, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

            Ray laughed and leaned up on his toes to kiss Ryan. They stood in the doorway of the office and kissed until the bell rang and Ryan had to go face a customer. When the elderly man finally left, having argued with Ryan over the color of a bouquet, Ray edged out from the back and wrapped his arms around Ryan’s waist.

            “Can we just cuddle tonight?” Ray said, still shaking.

            “Of course,” Ryan said, squeezing Ray’s hands before turning in his arms and wrapping his arms around him.

 

* * *

 

            Something has been nagging at Ray for a long time. Since the failed lad’s day out. When the Duck had him at arrow point and let him leave. He knew the Duck to be a good guy. He never killed anyone, protected the innocent, all of that jazz. Why didn’t he kill him, a wanted criminal, the bad of the bad?

            So, when the police had calmed down from the last heist, Ray decided to test something. Michael happily agreed to go with Ray to rob a small jewelry store. Of course, Ray didn’t exactly tell him why they were robbing the place, but that wasn’t really a problem. Michael accepted Ray’s plan to split up in the get away without too many questions.

            He picked a place close to the gas station, hoping that Duck was located somewhere near there and would respond right away. His choice was proven a good one when Michael and Ray burst from the store, the alarm blaring, and Duck was right there across the street, arrow aimed at them.

            “You’re on your own!” Michael shouted, the duffle over his shoulder. Ray scowled at him as they ran away from each other. Michael away from Duck while Ray ran right for him. Duck didn’t fire, at Ray, he shot at Michael and missed before turning, another arrow notched and aimed at Ray.

            Ray grinned back at Duck and disappeared into an alleyway. He kept running but when he finally glanced behind him, Duck wasn’t there. Ray slowed and frowned, Duck never missed a shot and he didn’t take give up on chasing someone either.

            “Weird,” Ray huffed before running again.

            When he got back to the penthouse, Michael yelled at him for being an idiot and running right at the Duck fuck who had a sharp, deadly arrow. Regardless, a few weeks later, Ray convinced Gavin to go on a small heist with him.

            That turned out to be a horrible idea. Gavin nearly got them killed by the shop keep who turned out to have a rifle. When Duck showed up, they were being chased out of Gavin’s choice of store.

            An arrow shot between them and went straight into the barrel of the shop keeps gun. Gavin squawked, grabbed Ray, and started to run, Duck actually chasing them. Ray looked back at him, and didn’t warn Gavin that Duck was aiming an arrow at them.

            He waited for him to fire, but he never did. Instead, he dodged down a different alleyway. Ray frowned and let Gavin drag him all the way back home. He didn’t take Gavin on a heist again out of safety.

            The next heist was with Jeremy, but when Duck didn’t show up he tried again with Jack and then Geoff. Eventually Duck showed up when he and Geoff were trying to get away. “Ray!” Geoff yelled as Ray bolted past Duck and down a different alleyway. He cursed and went to follow, but Duck shot an arrow through his clothes, trapping him to a wall before running after Ray.

            Duck slowly creeped along the alleyway, arrow at the ready. He didn’t want to hurt Ray, never wanted to hurt him, but he had to do something. These heists were a mess and dangerous. Ray wanted something from Duck.

            Ray watched Duck from a fire escape, jumping down once he had passed, gun raised. Duck spun around and pointed his arrow right at Ray.

            “Hey,” Ray said, grinning at Duck, “Finally caught you alone.”

            Duck didn’t move and barely breathed, he didn’t speak. Ray doubted he would. “I wanted to ask you what you’re doing.”

            Duck just stared at Ray, readjusting his grip on the bow. Ray huffed a sigh and lowered his gun. Duck slowly followed his lead, going so far as to place the arrow back in his quiver. “Who are you? Why aren’t you attacking us like you do other crooks?” Ray said, putting his gun back in his waistband.

            Duck shrugged and Ray groaned. “Come on man, you have got to give me something,” Ray said, frowning when Duck just shrugged again.

            They stared at each other for a moment before Ray huffed and folded his arms. Duck shifted awkwardly, glancing between Ray and around them. Ray narrowed his eyes and took a step forward. Duck tensed and pulled an arrow half out of the quiver, raising his bow slightly.

            “Who are you?” Ray said again, taking another step forward. Duck didn’t move this time but he was still tense. “What the hell are you doing?”

            Duck didn’t move as Ray came to stand right in front of him. He looked between his eyes before frowning. Duck flinched back as Ray raised his hand, but Ray didn’t stop moving. He covered Duck’s left eye with his hand.

            “Wait a minute, I know that eye,” Ray said softly, hooking his fingers under the duck mask. Duck squeezed his eyes closed as his mask was lifted up. Ray’s eyes widened as he saw a strong jaw with slight stubble then a familiar nose and cheek bones he liked to trace.

            The hood fell back to let fluffy blond hair free as the mask came away completely. Ryan cracked open his right eye and smiled sheepishly. “Hey Ray,” he said softly.

            Ray stared at Ryan for a long time, letting the mask fall to his side. “You’re Duck?” he managed after a moment.

            Ryan sighed and nodded. “That’s me,” he croaked, biting his lip.

            Ray studied Ryan’s face for a long time before reaching up and running his thumb along the skin under his eye. “How?”

            “Colored contact,” Ryan said, reaching up and taking Ray’s hand and squeezing his fingers, “I’m sorry Ray, I just. I’ve attacked your empire. I-“ Ray pressed his fingers against Ryan’s lips.

            “Rye, stop talking for a second so I can let this sink in,” Ray puffed a laugh, smiling up at Ryan.

            Ryan smiled against Ray’s fingers. They stood in silence for a moment as Ray dropped his forehead against Ryan’s chest. “Shit man this explains everything.”

            Ryan sighed and took Ray’s hand and kissed his palm. “I’m sorry, I should have told you sooner, I just-“

            “Its fine, Rye,” Ray laughed, leaning back, “I understand and it’s fine.”

            Ryan frowned, narrowing his eyes at Ray. “You’re just okay with this?” he said, grabbing Ray’s shoulders.

            Ray nodded and smiled up at Ryan. “I’m okay with it. You’re a good guy, I’m not even surprised.”

            Ryan stared at Ray for a long moment before smiling in relief. “Thank god,” he breathed, hugging Ray tightly.

            Ray laughed and hugged Ryan back. He figured he should be mad, but he wasn’t. He could understand why Ryan didn’t tell him and was barely surprised that Ryan was Duck. “But I’ve got to ask,” Ray said, leaning back, “Why the fuck have you let them call you Duck?”

            Ryan puffed a laugh and shook his head. “To be honest, I have no idea.”

            “Why the Dusk mask anyway?” Ray said, holding up the mask.

            “I uh, I saw some guys robbing a store coming home from an archery range and grabbed the first mask I picked up at a mask shop. I didn’t realize I was a fucking duck until the police thanked ‘that weird duck guy’.” Ryan said awkwardly, smiling sheepishly.

            Ray stared at Ryan for a long moment before bursting out laughing. “Oh my god,” he gasped.

            Ryan sighed and shook his head. “Thanks, feeling the love.”

            Ray snorted and leaned up to kiss Ryan’s cheek. “Want to go home?”

            “Yes, please,” Ryan sighed, pressing their foreheads together.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan was running through the streets of Los Santos with panic sinking into his chest. His skull mask was making breathing hard and his leather jacket felt restricting. He may have forgotten that today was his and Ray’s one year anniversary. He may have forgotten that he promised Ray that he would make them diner for a romantic night. And by forgot, he meant his side was still bleeding from a bullet he had taken during the heist earlier that day and the pain meds were making his brain foggy.

            Ray had left while Ryan was still asleep after being drugged up. When he woke, he realized that Ray was gone and why he was gone and bolted from the penthouse. When he got to the store, Ray wasn’t there and the door was still locked. A note on the counter told him that Ray thought he was out as Duck and went to their apartment.

            Ryan took a deep, relieved breath, pulling off his mask and jacket. He checked his bullet wound, cleaning up the blood, placing a new patch on, and trading out shirts. He ran home and smiled when he saw his apartment lights on.

            “Ray? I’m home! Sorry about that,” Ryan said as he opened the door and closed it behind him.

            “Hey Rye,” Ray said, smiling at Ryan over the back of the couch, “It’s alright, were you out as Duck?”

            “Yeah, just for a little bit. I thought I heard some sirens down the road,” Ryan said, heading into the living room. He leaned down and kissed Ray once he had turned around, kneeling on the cushions.

            “So about din-“ Ray started to say when they parted, but he stopped himself, looking between Ryan’s eyes.

            “Ray? What’s wrong?” Ryan said, frowning as Ray’s brow furrowed, looking between his eyes.

            “Rye? Why are both of your eyes green?” Ray said slowly, eyes narrowing.

            “What?” Ryan said, reaching up and pressing his fingers against the skin under his right eye.

            Ray leaned back, studying Ryan’s face for a moment before grabbing his shit and yanking the fabric up. “Ray!” Ryan gasped, wincing when Ray pressed his fingers against the patch on his side.

            “You’re Vagabond too?” Ray snapped, glaring at Ryan as he pushed his shirt back down.

            “I- yes,” Ryan sighed, looking at his feet, “Ray, I’m sorry.”

            Ray pursed his lips before taking a deep breath. “Is there any other you I should know about?” he said slowly, fingers curling into cushion.

            “Uh, well on Fridays I go to Lucha Libre matches as La Flamma Loco,” Ryan said with an awkward smile. Ray folded his arms and glared at him. “Right, not the time to be funny,” Ryan said softly feeling a burn begin in his chest.

            Ray took another deep breath and rubbed his face. “Okay, I understand why you kept being Duck from me and I get why you are the Duck, but what the fuck man? You’re scare of blood!”

            “Uh, no?” Ryan said, rubbing the back of his neck, “I’m not, it’s just easier to hold an alibi if I’m that flower guy whose scared of blood.”

            Ray frowned and continued to glare at Ryan for a moment. “Why? Why keep this from me?”

            Ryan opened his mouth then closed it again. “I-Vagabond is just that weird fucker who likes to kill people. You just, put up with him like everyone. Granted you put up with him more than most,” he said the burn coiling in his chest, “Duck is a hero, someone with character because obviously who runs around in a duck mask and doesn’t? And Ryan is that nerdy flower shop guy with an actually face and voice.”

            Ray’s arms dropped to his sides and he studied Ryan’s face again. Ryan gave Ray a pained smile. “Who would love Vagabond? Who would love me knowing what I am?”

            Ray reached out and hugged Ryan tightly. “Woah, hold on a second,” Ray breathed, squeezing him tightly, “I wasn’t going to say that, I’d never say that.”

            Ryan frowned and stayed perfectly still, squeezing his eyes shut. Ray frowned and leaned back, still holding onto Ryan’s shoulders. “Hey, Rye, come on. I’m mad, yeah, but I’m not going anywhere.”

            Ryan curled his hands into fists before relaxing. He looked up at Ray and hugged him tightly. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

            “It’s alright, Rye. I just wish that you had told me before,” Ray said gently, rubbing Ryan’s back.

            “I know,” Ryan said softly, squeezing his eyes shut.

            Ray took a deep breath then forced an honest smile. “Hey, it’s okay. Why don’t we both make diner?”  
            Ryan nodded numbly, forcing a less honest smile. Ray guided him into the kitchen and got him into the motions of cooking. Ryan stared to relax and ease into the motions. Ray didn’t bring up the fact that his contact was still in, afraid that Ryan would shut down again.

            Once they were seated and eating, Ray took a deep breath. “Rye, you uh, still have the contact in,” he said slowly, frowning when Ryan froze mid-bite.

            Ryan lowered his fork and carefully removed his contact. He stared at the contact for a long time. “Ray, I’m really sorry,” he said softly.

            Ray sighed and bit his lip. “Just, why have so many allices?” he said, watching Ryan set the contact down on his napkin.

            “I’ve never been right,” Ryan said carefully, “I’ve never been sane. I killed small animals when I was a kid, but I never wanted to kill anyone until I saw some kids try to drag a girl away into their room in college. I killed them and I felt nothing. They were bad and I didn’t mind. Vagabond was born to stop those who couldn’t be changed. Duck came from wanting to help people who had a chance to be someone better. They couldn’t be the same person, not with Vagabond’s record since he came first.”

            “And Ryan was created to be an alibi,” Ray said, nodding slowly, “That’s really amazing.”

            Ryan shrugged and pushed his plate away from him slightly. “I suppose,” he said, rubbing his face.

            Ray frowned and reached over to take Ryan’s hand. “You’re not proud of Vagabond, are you?”

            Ryan shook his head. “Vagabond kills things, for _fun_. Granted, because it’s me, he only kills those who’ve past the point of no return, but they’re still dead. I don’t want to be Vagabond, but I have to be.”

            Ray slowly stood and rounded the table. He hugged Ryan’s head and shoulders to his chest. “I’m sorry, Rye,” he said, pressing a kiss onto Ryan’s head, “I understand.”

            Ryan slowly reached up and hugged Ray tightly, closing his eyes. Ray smiled, running his fingers through his hair. “The contacts were a good idea.”

            “A killer and hero with heterochromia is easier to recognize than one with just one eye color,” Ryan said, smiling slowly, “I do like my eyes though.”

            “I love them too, that’s how I could tell,” Ray said, tilting Ryan’s head up so he could look between his eyes.

            Ryan smiled at Ray and cupped his cheek to kiss him. “What have I done to deserve you?” he breathed when they parted.

            “Nothing at all,” Ray said, their lips brushing against each other, “That’s all you had to do.”

            Ryan laughed and kissed Ray again. “Happy anniversary my beautiful rose.”

            Ray smiled and kissed Ryan’s nose. “I love you.”

            “I love you too,” Ryan said, squeezing Ray gently, “More than anything.”

            Ray laughed and pulled away, sitting down again. “Now at your diner,” he said in his best impression of Jack.

            Ryan snorted and grinned, pulling his plate close again. He took a deep breath before eating again.

 

* * *

 

            “We have to do something about Duck,” Geoff said at the beginning of the heist meeting.

            Ray nearly choked on his drink, Ryan patting his back as the others gave him confused or concerned looks. “We what?” he croaked, frowning up at Geoff.

            “We have to get rid of him, he’s becoming a problem,” Geoff said, folding his arms, “What happened Ray? You were the one so insistent on figuring the guy out.”

            “Yeah, and I figured him out, he’s not a danger,” Ray said, leaning back. Ryan placed his hand on his knee and frowned behind his mask. They hadn’t told the others about Ryan’s other selves. Additionally, since Ray realized Ryan was Vagabond, he made a point of cuddling up to him even with the mask on.

            “How is he not a danger? He’s converted some of your people!” Michael frowned, folding his arms.

            “He hasn’t recently,” Ray grumbled, and Ryan hadn’t. Not since Ray found out about him being Duck.

            “He’s still messing with our allies,” Jack said, shaking his head, “He’s a nuisance.”

            “And he attacked us when we were at that gas station,” Jeremy huffed, “If you hadn’t have pulled out a knife, we would have gotten caught.”

            Ryan withheld a wince. He hadn’t realized at that time that he was firing at the lads. Ray bit his lip, but didn’t argue. The others started planning. Throughout the meeting, Ray and Ryan met eyes, trying to figure out a plan without speaking.

            When the meeting let out, they left for their apartment in silence. “What are we going to do?” Ray finally said as they went into the shop through the back door.

            “Well, if I’m part of the plan, they’re never going to see Duck,” Ryan said, pulling his mask off and tossing it onto his desk.

            “Yeah, but then Geoff’s going to pick up on my old plan and they’ll catch you off guard eventually,” Ray said, leaning against the door frame as Ryan removed his contact and shrugged off his jacket.

            “Convince them that Duck isn’t a problem? I stop accidentally getting allies caught? I don’t know,” Ryan sighed, rubbing his face, setting the mirror down, “I can’t stop being Duck, I just _can’t._ ”

            Ray frowned then brightened up, grinning at Ryan. “You won’t have to,” he said, coming over and grabbing Ryan’s hands.

            “What?” Ryan frowned then smiled. “Do you have a plan?” his smile faltered when he saw Ray’s smirk, “Am I going to like this or?”

           

* * *

 

            “You’re what?” Geoff said slowly as the lads stared at Ray with their jaws dropped and Jack looked horrified. Ryan sat with his head in his hands as Ray smirked triumphantly at all of them.

            “I’m fucking Duck,” Ray said, arms folded.

            “I thought you were dating Ryan!” Gavin squawked, running his hands through his hair.

            “Fuck that, I thought you were fucking Vaga,” Michael sneered, glaring at the skeleton mask.

            “Wait, are you fucking all three of them?” Jeremy said, leaning back when Ray nodded.

            “At the same time?” Gavin added, leaning forward.

            “Yep, all three of them, all at once,” Ray said, grinning when the others looked amazed and scared, “That’s why I stopped trying to draw Duck out.”

            “So you know who he is?” Geoff pressed, leaning forward and narrowing his eyes.

            “Yeah, but I’m not telling you if you’re going to kill him,” Ray glared back, “I’ll talk to him and we’ll figure out a better solution to you trying to rip his head off.”

            Geoff scowled but thought about the option. Ryan held his head and deep sighed. He was sweating under his mask from how intense his blush was. He could barely breathe. He didn’t want to tell the others who he was but somehow that seemed like a less annoying option.

            “Fine,” Geoff huffed, folding his arms, “Get him to stop fucking with our people and there’s no problem.”

            Ray nodded and wrapped an arm around Ryan’s shoulders. “We’ll take care of him,” Ray said grinning as Ryan groaned audibly much to everyone’s shock.

            “I hate you,” Ryan grumbled when they got to the flower shop.

            “Worked, didn’t it?” Ray smirked, wrapping his arms around Ryan’s shoulders, “I didn’t even lie.”

            Ryan rolled his eyes and kissed the smirk off of Ray’s smug, adorable face. Ray laughed and happily kissed back.


	7. Hearts in Jars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When people want to get married, they have to have their hearts surgically removed and placed into jars. They carry each others hearts and care for them with their entire being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> From this work: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3454358/chapters/8089428

No one expected much from the Vagabond. His crew expected him to kill and his enemies expected him to kill them no matter how hard they fought. No one expected him to talk or make jokes, no one thought he was capable of such things.

            When someone was in Vagabond’s sights, they were expected to die. Even now, in the midst of a gang war, one man’s allies ran for their lives when the man in the skull mask turned his glowing blue eyes on them.

            One man swallowed hard and raised the knives he had been using to defend himself. Vagabond’s stride was long and fast. He was in front of the man in the matter of seconds. The man in the skull mask had a gun ready and as he raised the barrel to shoot.

            The man couldn’t breathe and raised his knife. He took a wild chance and stabbed the Vagabond. He felt the barrel press against his temple, then stop. He looked up at the skull mask, blue eyes staring him down, then down at the handle of the blade.

            The barrel was cool against his temple as his eyes widened. The knife stuck out of Vagabond’s chest, right where his heart should be. The man looked up again when the knife jiggled with a silent laugh.

            The man reached up and grabbed the handle of the blade and felt a heartbeat vibrate through the wooden handle. The barrel pressed more against his temple, but he pulled the blade out. Blood pushed out of the wound, the entire blade coated in red.

            Vagabond continued to laugh as the man stabbed him in the chest again and again. The blade was long enough, the blood was pumping from the wounds. Why wasn’t he dying? He should be stabbing Vagabond in the heart. How was he not tearing up the muscle?

            The man realized around the same time that Vagabond shot him in the temple. The only way to survive being stabbed in the heart was if the heart wasn’t there to begin with. The Vagabond didn’t have a heart. Someone owned the Vagabond’s heart.

            Vagabond turned toward his next victim as the man fell to the ground dead. No one expected much from him, and oddly enough, one of the things they expected the most was that he should have a heart. Who could possibly love a monster like him?

 

* * *

 

            Ray traced his fingers over the glass, following the curve of the muscle floating in a clear gel. The heart beat vibrated the entire jar, the pulsating rhythm pressing against his entire body to replace the hollow hole in his chest.

            The muscle lazily pumped the preserving gel through one ventricle to the other, little flecks of blood being pushed out into the rest of the jar. He just cleaned the gel so he wasn’t worried about having to clean the goop again.

            His eyes were out of focus as his finger got back to the beginning and he began tracing the arteries and smooth curves of the heart again. He was curled up in a hoodie two sizes too big and heavy sweat pants that covered his bare feet.

            The couch sagged under his weight, cradling him on a side he normally didn’t sit on. Books and knives were piled up on the side table beside him. On the other side of the couch was another side table that had games stacked high with a worn controller tossed dangerously close to the stack. Forgotten cans of soda and energy littered the rest of the table space and the ground around the table legs.

            Sighing, he leaned his head back against the couch, even the blanket smelled like him. Like dirt, blood, and gun powder. Smiling only to himself, he pressed his nose against the blanket and took a deep breath.

            His glasses pressed against his nose as he closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of the heart beating in his lap and the smell floating around him. Even the hoodie he was wearing still faintly smelled like him, although this was the last one. He had been gone so long that Ray had managed to go through most of his hoodies and jackets already.

            He was nearly asleep when his heart began to beat harder. Ray’s eyes snapped open as he looked down at the heart. His glasses stuck to his nose before slipping down his nose leaving an oval indent on the side of his nose. The muscle was still beating to its own tune, but now the rhythm was faster and stronger.

            Ray’s eyes brightened as he sat up, hugging the jar to his chest. Without bothering to pull the sweat pants up from his feet, he jumped up and tried not to trip on the flopping ends of the pants as he rounded the couch and slid down the hall to the door.

            Just as he came to a stop before the door mat, the apartment door squeaked open and a tall man wearing a skull mask filled the door way. His leather jacket was stained with blood and little pieces of long blond hair were poking out of the eye holes of the mask and from under the jaw. Piercing blue eyes grinned down at Ray, large hands holding on tightly to the straps of a black backpack.

            Ray smiled up at him, hugging his heart close to his chest. “Welcome home Rye, you okay?”

            Ryan took a deep breath and stepped into the apartment, closing the door behind him. As he bent to pull off his muddy and blood caked shoes, Ray’s fingers slipped under the mask and pulled the black skull up. When Ryan stood up right again, the mask dangled from Ray’s fingers and his hair fell more into his face, a few strands still loosely held together by a black rubber band.

            “I’m alright,” Ryan said, reaching out and cupping Ray’s cheek. Over the jar, they pressed their lips together. Ryan smiled as Ray laughed against him, the heart between them beating faster and harder.

            “You’re covered in blood. I hope it’s not yours,” Ray said, leaning back on the heel of his feet, giving Ryan a pointed look.

            “Well, some of it is,” Ryan sighed, offering a sheepish smile when Ray glared worriedly at him, “But most of it isn’t.”

            Ray huffed and shook his head. He held his hand out and Ryan obediently pulled the backpack from his shoulders. He pressed the straps into Ray’s hand and watched him trot back to the living room.

            Smiling after Ray, he grabbed his shoes from the floor and tossed them under the empty coat rack screwed into the wall next to the door. His boots landed next to Ray’s checkered vans, little pieces of dirt and flecks of dried blood dropping from the black leather. He’d get hell for getting shit in Ray’s shoes, again, but he didn’t have the mind to care.

            Reaching up to pull the rubber band completely from his hair, Ryan walked into the living room, watching Ray’s back as he pulled the jar from his backpack. Ray held Ryan’s jar up, looking over the muscle inside. Ray’s jar was already on the coffee table, a black skull scorched into the metal lid. The jar was snug in a davit in the wood the perfect fit for the bottom of wide jar.

            He didn’t jump when Ryan rounded the couch and wrapped his arms tightly around his waist from behind. Ryan rested his chin on Ray’s shoulder and watched him run his fingers over the glass. “Any cracks?” he said, squeezing Ray gently.

            “None that I see,” Ray said, leaning back into Ryan. He turned his head and kissed Ryan’s cheek before pulling away to set the jar next to his in its own davit. A black rose shined in the dim light of the room. Ray turned the jar until the leaves were under the rose.

            “Good, don’t want a repeat of the last time,” Ryan sighed, shaking his head and pulling Ray back to his chest the instant he could. Hugging the jar could give him a temporary memory of warmth and the smaller body pressed against his, the instant heart beat giving him comfort in the time spent apart. Nothing compared to having Ray actually in his arms, thin fingers untangling his hair and a sly grin aimed only at him.

            “No, fuck no,” Ray snorted, turning his arms and trying to gently pull a knot out of Ryan’s hair, “You need a bath.”

            Ryan snorted a chuckle and pressed his nose into the crook of Ray’s neck. Ray’s fingers slipped from his hair and wrapped around his shoulders instead. Ryan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, loving the familiar smell of soil, roses, and clean air.

            He had been afraid that he had cracked his jar this time around. Wouldn’t be the first time, but still terrifying. The hearts didn’t last long outside of the clear goop they floated in. They had to be kept clean and healthy. Removing ones heart from one’s body was more dangerous than some people were willing to try, but so many people did the surgery anyway.

            Without the proper care, the heart would shrivel into a black husk along with the proper owner. Once the heart turned to dust, there was no saving the original owner. The first time Ryan cracked his jar, he nearly broke down into tears in the middle of a heist. He quickly wrapped the entire jar up in duct tape and completed the heist. The instant that he was free to go, with his cut of the profits of course, he raced to get a new jar and clean gel.

            When he returned home, scared of what he might fine, Ray greeted him like he always did, not even a little pale. Ryan was so relieved that he nearly dropped the jar with his shaking hands trying to set it down so he could wrap Ray up into a tight hug.

            “Come on, big guy. Shower,” Ray laughed, patting Ryan’s back and pulling away just enough to make Ryan look at him, “I’ll even join you.”

            Ryan grinned and pressed a kiss into Ray’s cheek before grabbing his hands and pulling him toward their bedroom. Ray laughed and followed after Ryan, sparing their hearts one last glance before deciding they were safe enough.

            Ray yanked off Ryan’s hoodie and his sweat pants in the bedroom while Ryan continued onto the bathroom. Ray glanced into the room, watching Ryan push the hair hanging in his face up his forehead. He smiled as Ryan studied himself in the mirror before pulling off his boxers and tossing them into the general direction of the laundry pile.

            “Alright, stop admiring your unfairly handsome face,” Ray snorted, smiling as Ryan rolled his eyes.

            “I’m going, I’m going,” Ryan chuckled, shrugging off his jacket. Ray caught the stained jacket before it could drop into a heap on the floor. He held the jacket up, frowning at the holes he found in the chest.

            “What happened?” Ray said, sticking his fingers through some of the holes and wiggling his pointer at Ryan.

            “Got stabbed,” Ryan shrugged, slowly lifting his tight black t-shirt over his head, “Nothing major.”

            “Being stabbed is pretty fucking major, Rye,” Ray huffed, dropping the jacket into the corner. He placed his hands on his hips and glared at Ryan.

            “If it helps, he missed,” Ryan said, grinning at Ray and pressed his hand over where the scar on the left side of his chest should be. Instead, there was a bandage wrapped tightly around Ryan’s chest.

            “It doesn’t,” Ray huffed, reaching up and pushing Ryan’s hand away. He ran his fingers over the bandage before searching for the end. He found the small metal clips holding the end down and pulled them free.

            Ryan sighed as Ray carefully unwrapped the bandage then lifted the gauze pad. Some of the white fibers stayed behind, clinging to the dried blood and black stiches. Ray frowned at the multitude of stiches running up through the middle of the scar.

            “I’m alright,” Ryan said softly, taking the bandage from Ray’s hands and tossing the red tinted mess into the trashcan resting beside the toilet. He grabbed Ray’s hands and kissed his fingers.

            Ray frowned at Ryan before sighing and leaning up on his toes to kiss Ryan gently. “Not okay,” Ray mumbled against his lips when they parted.

            Ryan sighed and slipped his hands from Ray’s, then ran them up his arms, down his shoulders, to his hips. “Jack did a good job patching me up, there’s nothing to worry about.”

            Ray took a deep breath, Ryan could see their normal argument playing out in his eyes. They had said the same things, had the same argument. They’re relationship wasn’t perfect, but one thing that they could be proud of was the fact that there was only one thing that they would argue about.

            “Fine,” Ray puffed out the breath, pulling away from Ryan and walking over to the bath tub, “Pants off asshole.”

            Ryan chuckled and bit back the joke resting on the tip of his tongue. He unbuttoned his jeans and took them, his boxers, and socks off in one motion. The water turned on as he stepped out of his pants.

            When he turned around, Ray was already in the tub, hugging his knees to his chest and glaring at him. Sighing, Ryan slipped into the tub behind him but didn’t touch him, not yet.

            “It was the only wound I got,” Ryan tried after a tense moment filled only with the water rushing into the tub, “I was being careful, a guy just ran at me.”

            He watched Ray’s shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath but he didn’t say anything. Ryan bit his lip and hesitantly reached out and slid his arm around Ray’s waist. Ray didn’t push him away, instead, he leaned back against him and sighed again.

            Ryan opened his mouth but Ray shooting him a glare silenced him. “Don’t you dare say you’ll be more careful next time,” Ray snapped, turning to press his face into Ryan’s collarbone, “You always say that.”

            Ryan sighed and rested his cheek on the top of Ray’s head. “I know, my rose. I’m sorry,” he said softly, closing his eyes and holding Ray tightly.

            Ray frowned and tilted his head up. He kissed Ryan before snuggling into his chest again. “At least you’re doing better,” Ray mumbled almost inaudibly.

            Ryan grinned and squeezed Ray gently before reaching for the shampoo. He laughed when his hand was swatted away and Ray turned to be facing him completely. He closed his eyes and let Ray scrub the dried blood, dirt, and grease from his hair.

            When Ray rinsed his hair, Ryan made him sit with his back to him again, cleaning his hair. This was their ritual when Ryan returned home from a heist, especially a long one. Ray claimed they did this because Ryan reeked of blood, Ryan always knew that washing each other was a way to make sure the other was really alive and really there.

            Once dry and wrapped up in warmer clothes, Ray dragged Ryan to the couch then made him sit before claiming his lap. Ryan laughed and wrapped his arms around Ray without complaint. They talked quietly, Ryan recounting ridiculous events from the heist while Ray filled Ryan in on the shows he missed and what achievements he managed to get.

            Their hearts beat against the wood of the coffee table. They kept a calm and soothing rhythm that filled the quiet apartment. Every time Ray smiled at Ryan, the heart in the skull jar beat a little faster. When Ryan pressed sweet kisses into Ray’s temple, cheeks, and nose, the rose heart kicked up the pace. The hearts were never out of rhythm, even when one sped up.

            The hearts beat out the tempo of the song of their lives. The music only faded when they were apart and the drum dropped out of the music, sending all of the other instruments out of sync. As Ray pressed into Ryan’s chest, he looked at their hearts, watching the muscles push jell through their chambers. He smiled to himself and kissed Ray’s head, quickly looking up to watch the rose heart beat just a little bit faster.

            Ray laughed against him, shaking his head. Ryan grinned and carded his fingers through Ray’s hair. Ray’s fingers gently trace the scar on Ryan’s chest around the stiches and the skull heart beat harder, nearly raddling the table.

            “Ha,” Ray mumbled, grinning up at Ryan when he laughed.

            “Is this a competition now?” Ryan said, catching Ray’s hand.

            “Come at me bro,” Ray said, failing at not blushing when Ryan kissed his fingers then his palm. As the blush traveled from his cheeks down his neck, his heart beat just as hard as Ryan’s.

            “Challenge accepted,” Ryan mumbled against Ray’s palm before leaning down to kiss along his jaw then down his neck, chasing the blush.

            Ray gave a shaky laugh, clinging to Ryan’s hand as both of their hearts beat excitedly. “At least you can win at something,” he mumbled when Ryan nuzzled his jaw.

            Ryan snorted and kissed Ray silent. Their movements were in time with their song, which was playing a few beats faster than normal. As they cocooned themselves in the blanket over the back of the couch, their hearts slowed with their breathing.

            “I love you,” Ryan sighed into Ray’s hair, closing his eyes and focusing on the warmth radiating from Ray and the thin fingers tracing the scar on his chest once again.

            “I love you too,” Ray said softly, tilting his head up to kiss Ryan’s chin before pressing as close as he possibly could.

            Ryan smiled and cracked an eye open to look at their hearts before relaxing into the couch. For the first time since he left for the heist, Ryan had a restful night’s sleep.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan was mad and the crew knew that for one reason and one reason alone. They couldn’t see his anger in the way he sat or his face. His skull mask was on tight, blue eyes unfeeling as they glowed from behind the mask. He sat no differently, tense and tight. His arms were folded as he leaned back against the chair, feet flat against the ground.

            Ryan himself looked the same, the same old Vagabond with a monotone voice and dead eyes. The same leather jacket and ratty, stained jeans. The mask was perfectly in place, not a blond hair to be seen. No, how they knew he was mad was because of the black backpack that sat on the table in front of him.

            They could all feel the table rattle and shake in rhythm with the pack. The beat was harsh and heavy. Every time the beating rattled the table, at least one of them flinched. The heart might not be Vagabond’s but whoever the owner was, they were mad. Which instantly meant that Vagabond was mad. That was something all of them had learned once some time ago even if none of them had ever seen the heart that was hidden inside.

            Geoff took a deep breath and cleared his throat. Ryan’s eyes snapped towards him but he refused to flinch. Vagabond was terrifying, but he was still his boss. “I know I’m calling you all back a lot sooner than anyone wanted.”

            “No shit,” Michael mumbled, shooting Geoff a glare as Gavin pouted beside him. Their surgery was tomorrow, they should be preparing for that.

            “But, we have a problem,” Geoff pressed, holding his hand out to Jack who pulled a picture from the folder in her hands. He slapped the picture against the whiteboard, slamming a magnet down so the picture stayed up.

            “Wait, you called us in because of some old guy?” Jeremy snorted, scowling as he leaned back against his seat.

            Geoff sighed and glared at the picture of an old man with thinning gray hair and sagging skin. “This old guy is one of the crime lords in New York,” he said slowly, turning to face the crew again, “His men were the ones that interrupted our latest heist.”

            Gavin squawked while Michael narrowed his eyes. Jeremy tensed and shifted in his seat. Ryan didn’t move, didn’t even seem to breath like he always did. “We don’t think he was expecting us to interrupt whatever he was doing here in Los Santos,” Jack said, setting the folder onto the table, “But we did. He might have a hit out on all of us.”

            Everyone tensed as the heat beat shaking the table suddenly went erratic. The rhythm was completely lost, the pack nearly jumping from the table with every beat. They all stared at the bag as Ryan burst to his feet. He gathered the bag up into his arms before taking long strides toward the door. He paused at the threshold, turning back and grabbing the thick file folder from the table and storming out.

            The crew stared at the door for a moment before glancing at each other and then at the picture of the old man. A shiver shot through the room, a similar thought on everyone’s mind. If Ryan got so much as a glimpse of that man, he won’t be alive for very long.

 

* * *

 

            The panic settled into the pit of Ryan’s stomach and he struggled to breathe as he ran to their home. Ray’s heart had eventually found their rhythm again although the beat was hard and fast. He hoped that Ray’s panic had been spurred on by his own and that absolutely no one had hurt him or taken him away.

            He nearly shattered the door around the lock when he slammed into their apartment door. The wood bowed and bent but didn’t give. Gritting his teeth together, he searched for his keys, a small part of his mind relaxing at the realization that no one had broken in. Well, through the front door anyway.

            His teeth screeched in his mouth as they ground against each other at the thought that someone snuck in through the god damn window or something to drag Ray god knows where. The more he thought, the harder finding his keys became. He could barely feel anything beside the heart beat against his back as he patted the same pocket four times.

            He froze when the locks tumbled and the door creaked open. Ray peaked out at Ryan from behind the door, brow furrowed and nose wrinkled. The breath Ryan had been holding rushed past his lips as his body sagged, all tension bleeding out of him and onto the floor.

            “Rye? What’s wrong?” Ray said slowly, pushing the door more open, “Are you okay?”  
            Ryan took a shaky breath before herding Ray back into the apartment. He quietly shut the door and turned all of the locks. He passes his pack to Ray, moving into the living room to inspect the windows.

            “Ryan?” Ray said, trailing after him with a worried frown, “Ryan? Hey! What the fuck?”  
            Ryan glanced back at Ray and let out another shaky breath. He held up a finger and turned back to the window, trying to clear his thoughts. Ideas of how to completely block the windows or which safe house to go to bounced around in his head rapidly. He could barely hold onto one thought at a time.

            Ray huffed but said nothing. Ryan faintly heard him set the pack down and let the jar slip free. The zipper scraped against the glass before drop to the ground with a dull thump. The glass tapped against the wood of their coffee table which was vibrating the floor violently.

            Ryan took a deep breath and grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. “We need to go shopping,” he said as evenly as he could, turning to Ray and pushing his mask up slightly, “And the car needs gas.”

            Ray’s eyes went wide and he nodded quickly, scarfing up Ryan’s heart and hugging the jar tightly to his chest. “W-which gas station?” he said, trying to control his voice.

            “The one on the other side of the town,” Ryan said, forcing a reassuring smile. He kissed Ray’s temple before grabbing his bag and jar. “I feel like driving.”

            Ray nodded and ran from the room. Ryan pulled his mask down and glanced at the TV. If anyone was listening, they might be suspicious but confused. If they weren’t, the apartment had to look like they were still living there. As he slipped the jar into his bag, he glanced around the room.

            As he heard Ray’s feet thud back toward him, he snatched up the X-box controller as a last second thought. Blocking the view from the window, he started up the first game he saw and paused the game as soon as the player control began.

            Ray frowned at him from the kitchen, shifting nervously with a duffle flung over his shoulder and the jar tight in his arms. He glanced at the windows nervously as Ryan came over and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

            After making sure the apartment was closed tight, they jogged down the stairs. Ray clung to Ryan’s hand as they walked down the street, Ryan’s mask sticking out of his back pocket. Ray’s grip was bone crushing, but he chattered on like nothing was wrong. He knew Ryan wasn’t listening to him but to what was around them. The noise made them look just a little normal and calmed him. His heart beat against Ryan’s back was still rapid pace, but slowing.

            As they turned the corner in the opposite direction from the safe house, Ryan heard the steps trailing after them in alleyways chase after and pulled Ray toward a parked car. Ray yelped and snorted, still holding onto Ryan’s hand as he fiddled with the door.

            “Oh, this is where you parked. I was wondering,” Ray said, letting go of his hand and leaning against the car next to him, blocking the view of the skeleton key in Ryan’s hand, “Is it winning?”

            Ryan glanced at Ray and smirked, listening for those footsteps. Instead, just as the door popped open, he heard a click of the hammer of a gun and pushed Ray into the car, dropping his bag at his feet in the same motion.

            Ray gasped as a bullet ricocheted off of the hood of the car. Ryan slammed the door shut and whirled around, pulling a pistol free from a hidden holster under his jacket. A woman stood in the shadow of an alleyway, bright red heels glistening in the little light cast her way.

            Ryan could just make out her smirk before firing, hitting her right between the eyes. As her body dropped and civilians screamed, he raced around the car and slipped into the unlocked driver’s side. Ray’s eyes were wide and he was shaking as he hugged Ryan’s heart.

            “We’re okay, we’re fine,” Ryan said, quickly hotwiring the steering wheel. Ray nodded numbly, back of his skull smacking against the head rest as Ryan bolted from the parking space onto the road. Their hearts beat audible and rapidly as Ryan took sharp turns.

            They were both tense as Ryan took the long way around the city, nearly hitting every road in the efforts to make sure that no car followed them out of the city and into the woods. Once they took the correct exit, having missed the road a few times just because someone was behind them, Ryan dug his phone from his pants pocket. The sky was dark and their hearts had finally calmed to their usual beat and rhythm.

            Ray nearly dropped the phone when the flip phone was pressed into his hands. “I need you to call Geoff,” Ryan said, glancing at Ray when he saw his terrified look out of the corner of his eye, “It’s untraceable.”

            Ray swallowed hard and slowly nodded. He plugged in the number Ryan recited for him before pressing the phone to his ear. There was no speaker function. The phone had a number pad and a call button and that was all that was needed.

            “H-hi, it’s. I’m Ray,” Ray said after a moment. Ryan had to hide a smile, chuckling when Ray punched his arm anyway. “Someone tried shooting at us, we’re going to a safe house.”

            Ryan frowned as Ray shifted nervously, biting his lip. The call needed to end soon. “Okay, I’ll tell him,” Ray said, snapping the phone shut and holding the simple device back out to Ryan.

            Ryan grabbed the phone and rolled down the window, driving the straight road ahead of them with his knee. He chucked the phone out the window before grabbing the wheel with one hand and closing the window with another. Ray snorted and shook his head. “Perfectly untraceable,” he said, chuckling when Ryan smiled sheepishly.

            “What did Geoff say?” Ryan said, glancing behind them. Car lights were fast approaching behind them.

            “That he’ll take care of everything,” Ray sighed, leaning back against the seat, “He wants you to stay in the safe house and not do anything dumb.

            Ryan snorted and frowned as the car came closer and closer, with no hint of slowing down on this one way street. They were either going to squeeze around him or ram him.

            “Hold on,” Ryan said, snapping the car into a sharp turn into a community at the last second without slowing down. Ray yelped and clung to the handle above the window as their car screeched and nearly went up onto two wheels.

            The car behind them flew past the turn and Ryan frowned. He gunned the car forward, grinning when Ray held on tightly to the handle with both hands. He took multiple sharp turns, coming back out onto the main road further back than where they had turned in. The road was completely empty as they continued on their way.

            Just as they got back to where they had turned in, skid marks marring the road, the car lights reappeared behind them. This time, they were moving too quickly. The car slammed into the back of theirs, sending their bodies forward just for the seat belts to catch them. The air bags blew as they were forced down the road and into a street lamp.

            Ryan groaned, pushing the air bag away. His head throbbed along with his shoulder and side in the shape of the seat belt. He glanced at Ray to find him limp in his seat, blood dripping down his forehead from a small shard of glass from the windshield.  

            The windshield was falling in on Ray’s side, the hood of the car wrapped around the street lamp which was blinking above them. His side of the car took the brunt of the hit. The lamp was bent, glass from the bulb and the cars side mirrors littering the ground. The entire car was dark and Ryan could just make out the grass they were resting on in his blurry vision.

            He slowly turned to look out the smashed back of the car. The back seat was almost in the front, the rear window shattered on top of their duffle bag. The car behind them still had the headlights on despite the front being completely smashed, the headlights only light bulbs. Two figures passed in front of the light and Ryan pulled his gun and a knife with a quiet, pained grunt.

            He quickly cut his and Ray’s seat belts without moving too much. He hung limp once the belts were cut, watching both figures come to their doors out of the corner of his eyes.

            The creak of metal echoed in the car as their doors were forced open. Ryan’s head snapped up, ignoring how that made the world spin. His knife sunk into the eye of the man next to him while a bullet buried into the neck of the woman reaching for Ray.

            Both bodies dropped and Ryan forced himself to stand, untangling his legs from the warped metal. Racing around the car, he carefully pulled the duffle from the back seats, throwing the bag over his shoulder. He then untangled Ray from his seat belt and pulled him into his arms.

            Placing Ray on the ground, he pulled their jars from the car and felt his heat stop. His heart was fine, but the bag Ray’s was in was soaked. He scrambled to open the bag, peering in with a small flashlight he kept on his keys.

            The entire side of the jar was shattered, the gel leaking everywhere. A few pieces of glass were dangerously close to the heart. Ryan’s breathing stopped as he looked at Ray. He was getting paler by the minute.

            With shaking hands and panicked breath, he carefully removed the glass from the shattered jar and pulled the jar out of the bag. He scooped up as much of the gel as he could, making sure that the heart was covered in the half of the jar left.

            Dirt and his own blood made the clear gel foggy. He felt sobs scratch at his throat, but swallowed them down. Without putting the broken jar down, he put his own heart into the duffle, surrounded by clothes, leaving a few garments behind. He set the broken jar in Ray’s lap before picking him up bridal style, making sure he wasn’t being stabbed by the jagged glass.

            He walked carefully, wincing every time he took a step, his leg burned and bled. Something was either fractured or a deep cut sent fire through his muscles. Ray was paling more and more as his heart browned. Ryan felt the tears drip down his face as he forced himself forward.

            Nothing else appeared on the road. No cars, driveways, or animals. Ryan tugged along, becoming numb to the pain eventually. After nearly two miles, a dirt road turned off of the paved one. Ryan took a deep breath and continued on. By the time he reached a small cabin up a hill from the dirt road with no road leading to house at all, he was barely breathing and dizzy.

            Ryan nearly tumbled into the house, setting Ray down as gently as he could manage on the couch. He stared at his rose for a moment too long, pain resonating through him as he tried to force himself from his knees to his feet. Ray looked too thin and gray. His heart was turning black on the edges, the beat weak and soft.

            With a pained sob at the sad state of Ray’s heart, Ryan forced himself to his feet and gathered up the jar. He stumbled into a closet next to the buzzing refrigerator and grabbed a perfect jar and a packet of the gel. With his vision blurring, he filled the jar with the gel, carefully transferred Ray’s heart, then took the rose burned lid from the shattered jar and screwed it onto the new jar.

            He smiled as a bright red light filled the jar for a moment before the heart began beating stronger again. Ryan breathed a laugh, hugging the jar as tightly as he could, before collapsing to the ground, the world going black.

           

* * *

 

            Ray woke up to find Ryan’s heart barely beating in his jar, nearly entirely brown and black. He found Ryan next, laying on the ground, curled around his heart which was a healthy red. He scrambled to wrap Ryan’s still bleeding leg in the first shirt he pulled from the duffle, rushing around the safe house for a first aid kit.

            He had never been one for needles and medicine before meeting Ryan. Since they started dating, Ray had learned how to set bones and make perfect stiches. He had gotten pretty good in the years they had been together, especially after they married. This gouge wasn’t the worst one he had sown for Ryan before. The problem was that he had lost a lot of blood and had left the wound alone without cleaning out the dirt and chips of plastic and paint from the car.

            Ray worked with steady hands although the rest of him was shaking. He carefully cleaned the wound out with a wetted t-shirt. He was confused by the paint and plastic, unable to focus on why those particular things would be in the wound while he was going over and over how to tend to the wound out loud. He was actually surprised they were even in the safe house. The last thing he remembered was the car suddenly filling with light and the nothing.

            Satisfied with how clean the wound was, he grabbed the peroxide from the kit and dumped a good amount onto the wound. Ryan’s body jerked, face faintly twisting with pain. Ray bit his lip as he watched the liquid bubble in his leg. He could taste blood on his lips and his head was starting to throb. His right shoulder and left hip began to ache as he realized that the bright light had been another car slamming into theirs. They had crashed.

            Ray took a shaky breath and reached up, running his fingers over his head until he found a rough lone on his forehead. He winced as he accidentally pressed something further into the cut. He scowled at his fingers when they came away red. Sighing, he focused on Ryan’s leg, just noticing the drying pool of blood he was kneeling in. How long had he been out?

            Shaking his head, he carefully cleaned the remaining peroxide from Ryan’s wound and pulled out the sterile thread and needle from the kit. With practiced ease, he sewed the wound shut and carefully wrapped his leg.

            Prying Ryan’s arms from around his jar, he chose to ignore the shattered jar on the counter that he set his heart next to. Instead, he checked Ryan over for more wounds and only found a few cuts and large bruises.

            He carefully removed the glass from the cuts and cleaned them, rubbing alcoholic pads along the cuts. He left them to air themselves as he struggled to drag Ryan over to the bed in the corner of the one room house.

            Studying Ryan’s pale face and tight frown for a long moment, he thought about turning around and ground his teeth in fear. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed his eyes shut and turned around. Taking another breath, he opened his eyes and looked at Ryan’s heart still half out of the duffle. He saw the heart beat a bit harder and rushed over to the duffle. The black spots on the heart were gone and the brown was slowly bleeding away.

            Ray breathed out a pained laugh and smiled. He hugged the heart tightly to his chest taking a few deep breathes. Resting his cheek on the lid, he looked lazily up at the open door of the cabin.

            Puffing a laugh, he stood on wobbling legs and limped over to the door. He pushed the heavy wood closed and turned the heavy duty lock. He leaned against the door for a moment, glancing around the cabin for a moment before his eyes fell onto Ryan.

            He smiled at the feeling of Ryan’s heart beat against his chest. Letting out a shaky breath, he pushed off of the door and wondered back over to the kitchen. He pushed the shattered jar into the trash before setting Ryan’s heart next to his own reluctantly. He stared at their hearts for a moment before forcing himself to pick up the first aid kit and go over to the skin with a mirror hanging over the white stone.

            Setting the kit on the toilet next to the sink, he looked over his head wound in the mirror and sighed. Streams of blood slipped down his face and neck, staining the collar of his shirt red. He took his time cleaning his face and wound with shaking hands. Like Ryan, he was covered in small scrapes and bruises.

            Once he completed his self-inspection, he wondered over to the shower head hanging over a tile dish. He tossed his clothes on top of the first aid kit and stepped under the shower head. He pulled a thin browning cord hanging next to the shower head and jumped as cold water hit his head and slid down his body.

            Hugging himself tightly, he shivered until he got used to the cold and started scrubbing the dirt and blood from his body. His bruises ached every time he so much as looked at them.

            When he finished, he pulled on the first shirt he came across in the duffle, smiling when he realized that he was wearing one of Ryan’s t-shirts. He pulled on a pair of boxers he had to dig to the bottom of the bag for before going back over to the open air bathroom. His hair still dripped water as he grabbed a washcloth and the towel he had used.

            He carefully pulled all of Ryan’s clothes off and dumped them next to the toilet. With clean clothes at the ready, he cleaned Ryan carefully with the wash cloth before drying him off and dressing him. He wrapped Ryan up in the blankets on the bed before shuffling over to their hearts.

            Every movement was painful and his eyes were dragging with sleep. Regardless, he gathered up the jars and carried them over to the bed. He wrapped them up in the heaviest clothes he had packed before shimming onto the bed next to Ryan. He set his heart on the floor before hugging Ryan’s tightly.

            He watched the heart beat stronger with every pulse and smiled gently. The brown spots were fading slowly but surely. Closing his eyes, he leaned his forehead forward until the edge of the lid was digging into his skin. He fell asleep like that, startled awake by a sudden shift in the bed.

            His eyes snapped open to find Ryan sitting up, holding Ray’s heart in his lap. Ryan still looked pale and tired, but he looked better. Ray’s eyes widened as he slowly smiled. Ryan looked over at him and grinned, he reached out and took Ray’s hand, letting them fall onto the bed between them.

            They both looked down at Ryan’s heart which was red once again, beating strong and proud. Ray breathed out a sigh of relief before edging closer to Ryan and leaning against him.

            “We’re okay,” Ray whispered, closing his eyes.

            “Yep,” Ryan rasped, resting his cheek on Ray’s head, “We’re okay.”

            Ray insisted that Ryan stay in bed for at least a week. He cooked the canned food in the pantry and made sure Ryan drank enough. If he needed to go to the bathroom, Ray tried to take on his full weight, helping him to limp to the toilet. Ryan’s leg healed nicely, although a long jagged scar would most likely remain.

            “Just another addition to the collection,” Ryan shrugged, laughing when Ray rolled his eyes and lightly punched his shoulder.

            There was no electricity in the cabin minus a small hand generator that they had to continuously pump to get power. Ray tried to play games that way, but always needed both hands for his DS. Eventually Ryan figured out how to hook the generator up to the dusty TV resting in front of a lump couch.

            They would take turns playing on the horribly sounding old X-box. One would play while the other used the generator. Not a perfect or quiet system but they could live with it.

            By the time there was a polite knock on the door, Ryan’s leg was completely healed and their hearts were both in perfect condition. They both froze at the sound, glancing at each other before Ray dived under the kitchen table with their hearts and Ryan pulled out one of his many guns.

            Ray watched with baited breath as Ryan slowly creeped up to the door, mask slipped on, and glanced through the gaps in the boards of wood. He frowned when Ryan relaxed and threw the door open.

            “Hey assholes, how have you been?” Geoff grinned at them, hands stuffed into his pants pockets.

            “Tired,” Ryan huffed, shaking his head with a fond smile.

            Ray grinned and wiggled out from under the table. He set their hearts down before jogging over. “Hey Geoff,” he said, offering Geoff his hand, “Please tell me we can go home.”  
            “Yes you can, we already cleaned up your apartment,” Geoff said with a nod, shaking Ray’s hand.

            “They wrecked out apartment?!” Ray gasped as Ryan sighed in relief, “Did they destroy my games?”  
            “Yes, but your system was still intact. You’re safe,” Geoff said, laughing when Ray nearly melted with relief.

            “Thanks Geoff,” Ryan sighed, tugging at the edges of his mask, “Got a car?”

            “Yep, right outside. Get your shit and meet me on the dirt road in five,” Geoff said, turning on his heels. A huge monster truck sat through the trees. The entire machine vibrated as little puffs of gray smoke left the tail pipe. Ryan wasn’t even surprised that Geoff had a silent monster truck.

            “Holy shit, that’s awesome,” Ray said, grinning at the truck through the trees.

            “And probably Gavin driving,” Ryan sighed, turning back into the house, “Come on, they won’t wait forever.”

            “Do you think Geoff’ll let me drive?” Ray said, rushing through the house to collect clothes and games.

            “Probably, he likes you,” Ryan snorted, pulling his mask up once the duffle bag was on the bed, “You’ll at least keep us from getting into another accident.”

            Ray grinned wildly, shoving dirty and clean clothes into the bag. “Fuck yes,” he laughed, grinning still when Ryan kissed him silent.


	8. Rose Café

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray owns a rose café and Ryan gets dragged by Lindsey, Ashley, and Meg and then sees Ray and comes all of the time, mainly when there’s only little old ladies at the place so he can talk to Ray. The old ladies are betting on when they’ll date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> My lovely SO gave me this idea and I just had to write it.

            “Why must you three drag me everywhere?” Ryan groaned, trailing after his coworkers. Meg and Lindsey had a hold of his arms to keep him from escaping while Ashly lead them with her chin up and a devilish smirk. He was bent over to their height since they were basically hugging his arms.

            “Because you don’t go anywhere!” Lindsey snorted, squeezing Ryan’s arm.

            “Yeah, and Gavin won’t go with us,” Meg sighed, shaking her head. Strands of her bright red hair slipped from her bun.

            “Why don’t you drag him like you do me? Why don’t you drag any of your boyfriends?” Ryan said, barely dragging his feet. If he fought, Lindsey would take him to the ground which would lead to Ashley and Meg each picking up one of his legs while Lindsey dangerously carted him around by the neck. His muscles were still swore from the last time that happened.

            “Because they’re big babies,” Ashly huffed, arms folded and shaking her head. Her blond ponytail swished from side to side. “Sides, they’re harder to carry.”

            Ryan rolled his eyes and just accepted his fate. They weren’t going to let him go any time soon. He did enjoy the time he spent with the girls, but sometimes he just didn’t want to be dragged from his office and whatever game he was killing time with.

            “Sides, you’ll like this place,” Meg said, sharing a dangerous smile with the other two girls.

            Ryan narrowed his eyes and stumbled over his feet when he tried to stop and Lindsey and Meg yanked him along. “I don’t like those smiles. Where the fuck are you taking me?”

            “Oh calm down,” Lindsey snorted, grinning at Ryan. Her pink hair laid straight along her back, still blinding in the light. “It’s just a café.”

            “You had evil smiles,” Ryan pressed, glancing around them for anything to hook his foot on. Every street lamp, parking meter, and mail box they passed was too far for him to reach. “You’re all plotting against me!”

            “Not this time,” Ashley said, grinning up at a sign hanging over the sidewalk. The sign was round with a green boarder. A rose filled one side while the words ‘Rosa Café’ Clung to the boarder in simple cursive on the other side.

            “We’re plotting for you,” Meg nodded, pushing Ryan into the empty shop as Ashley held the door open.

            Ryan stumbled in and glared back at the girls. His shoulders bunched up when he heard an amused chuckle. As the girls slipped into the café behind him, he turned and looked at the young man leaning against the counter next to the register.

            “Welcome, everything okay?” the man said, brown eyes flicking from Ryan’s face, down his body, then back up. Thick, black rimmed glasses rested on his nose, a scruffy beard clinging to his jaw. His hair was messy and clung to his forehead a bit. He had a crooked grin and thin fingers resting on his cheek.

            Ryan felt his cheeks heat as the girls laughed, pushing past him. “Just fine,” Meg said before looking at the sign hanging on the wall behind the man. Each of them ordered and claimed a table close to the counter. Each of them gave Ryan a knowing grin, watching with amusement as he shuffled toward the register.

            “So, what can I get you?” the man said, giving Ryan a kind, cute smile.

            Ryan blinked at the man for a moment before sheepishly studying the sign above his head. There were a number of coffees and meals listed in neat, white cursive. The sign was brown with bright red roses at each corner.

            “Uh, the Rose Special?” Ryan said, trying not to cringe. His voice sounded all wrong and he could feel nerves bubble in his stomach.

            “Anything to drink?” the man said, poking at the register’s screen before grinning at Ryan again.

            “Uh,” Ryan made himself look away from those pretty brown eyes to look at the sign again, “Just- water works.” He mumbled out, fumbling for his wallet. He wasn’t big on coffee and he had no idea what any of the drinks were.

            “That’s seven fifty,” the man said, tapping at the screen for a moment before turning away. Ryan took a deep breath and shot the girls a glare when he heard them laugh.

            The man slapped a fogged water bottle on the counter before taking Ryan’s money. Ryan watched him peck at the register, looking over the dark brown apron he wore. Over his heart, the name “Ray” was sown into the apron in bright pink.

            “Here’s your change,” Ray said, holding a few bills and receipt out to Ryan, fist closed around the cents. Ryan scrambled to take the money, struggling to juggle the money, paper, and water bottle.

            He felt eyes on him all the way over to the girls, dropping into the remaining chair around the red plastic table with a groan. The white metal chair he dropped into had a pink cushion that slowly sank under his weight.

            “I hate all of you,” Ryan grumbled as he stuffed the bills into the main pocket of his wallet.

            “You think he’s cute,” Lindsey laughed behind her hand.

            “You should be thanking us,” Meg said, Ashley nodding along, “He’s single.”

            “So?” Ryan sighed, forcefully stuffing his change into his pocket along with the crumpled receipt, “That does not mean he’s interested or that I am.”

            “You’re cheeks are still red,” Ashley snorted, poking his cheek and laughing when he swatted at her hand with his wallet, “You’re totally interested.”

            Ryan glared at each of them as he slipped his wallet back into his back pocket. He grumbled under his breath as he opened his water bottle. The girls all grinned at each other before saving Ryan from his heated cheeks. They complained about their jobs, specifically about other coworkers hitting on them.

            Ryan sighed and relaxed into the chair, sipping at the water. They all worked for the same advertising company. Ryan was the head animator with Lindsey working directly under him while Meg and Ashley were part of the PR department.

            Despite their very real and come-into-the-office-constantly boyfriends, other coworkers were always flirting with all three of them. Which was, incidentally, how Ryan met all three of them individual. Lindsey was the new programmer and was immediately flirted with by one of the creepier guys. Meg was being followed through the office and ended up in his department trying to keep him from finding out where her desk was. Ashley pretended Ryan was her boyfriend to get some guy off her back. Each time, Ryan did the decent human being thing and told the guys off or, in Ashley’s case, played along.

            After that, they discovered each other through asking Ryan for help and then just dragged him everywhere after that. He didn’t mind, he rather liked hanging out with the girls, the problem was recent. They were all insistent on setting him up with someone. One outing they interrogated him into telling them what his type was which, unfortunately for them, was basically anyone he could form a bond with. Since then, every so often they would literally drag him somewhere against his will to flirt with some poor person.

            So far, none of those set ups had worked. No one had quiet peaked his interest as this Ray did. He was cute and Ryan rarely thought about appearance when first meeting someone.

            “Here are your coffees,” Ray said, startling Ryan. He leaned over the table right next to Ryan to set the girls drinks down in front of them.

            Ryan felt his face heat up again when he turned his head to glance at Ray and realized he was way too close. All he could see was the brown of the apron and the white and pink striped rope keeping the apron in place. He looked down at the table quickly, leaning slightly away from Ray to keep from bumping him.

            “You’re food will be out in a bit,” Ray said sparing Ryan an amused glance before going back to the counter and slipping into the back.

            “Wow, you already have it bad,” Lindsey snorted, patting Ryan’s shoulder.

            “We finally found one,” Meg sighed, grinning brightly at Ryan.

            Ashley shook her head and patted Ryan’s head from across the table. “Just relax Ryan, he’s not going to bite you.”

            Ryan glared at all of them, swatting at Lindsey and Ashley. “I don’t need you three trying to set me up with every person who’s breathing.”

            “No, but you have to admit this guy’s cute,” Meg said, nudging Ryan’s shoulder with her own, “Just admit you’re interested. I’m a great wing man.”

            “No you’re not,” Ashley snorted, laughing when Meg pouted at her.

            “If anyone, I’m the best wing man, just saying,” Lindsey said, buffing her nails on her shoulder.

            “You’re definitely better than Meg,” Ashley nodded, laughing when she got slapped in the arm.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and tuned them out. Leaning his chin onto his palm, he looked around the shop. Multiple other tables with white vases with singular fake roses in them littered the red tiled room. The counter faced toward the front door, a case showing off multiple pies and breads.

            White and red roses were carefully panted on the pink walls in varying sizes and colors. White lights hung from the ceiling, white plastic sheets folded over each other to make the lights look like pine cones. Ryan followed the roses on the wall back over to the counter.

            The door to the back was shining metal with a porthole window with no handle. He watched the door wobble over the threshold for a moment before glancing at the window. A familiar mop of brown hair just dropped away from the smudged glass.

            Furrowing his brow, he watched the window for a moment, pressing his lips together to hide a smile when Ray peaked through the window before disappearing again with pink cheeks when he realized Ryan was still watching.

            “Ryan? What are you looking at?” Meg said, poking his shoulder, “And why are you laughing? That never ends well.”

            “Protect your cows!” Lindsey said, laughing when Ryan shot her a glare.

            “It’s nothing,” Ryan huffed, glancing at the window and smiling when he saw Ray again but Ray didn’t see him looking.

            Ashley elbowed Meg and Lindsey when she saw the smile tugging at Ryan’s lips. When the other two looked at her, she nodded her head toward the metal door. Discreetly, they all watch Ray catch Ryan’s eye and wave sheepishly.

            Ryan laughed lightly and waved back. The girls all glanced at each other then gave each other small high fives under the table. They finally found one that Ryan liked.

            Their food came out a moment later, Ray’s cheeks still dusted pink. “Tell me if you need anything,” he said, shooting Ryan a winning smile before rushing to hide behind the counter.

            They all took a bit of their food and hummed. When they all came back up for air, Lindsey glanced at Ray watching the door with glassed over eyes then at Ryan who also looked to be in another world and huffed. “So, Ryan,” she said, smirking when his shoulders jumped before he looked at her, “How far have you gotten in Halo?”

            “I finished Halo last week,” Ryan snorted, sipping at his water before speaking again, “I’m on GTA now.”

            “I thought you already finished GTA,” Ashley said, picking at the bread of her sandwich. She ate the little flecks she yanked off.

            “I did, but it’s too much fun,” Ryan shrugged before devouring the rest of this own sandwich.

            Meg noticed Ray obviously listening in on their conversation. He was looking at the door but he was leaning toward them. “Need any co-op help? I’ll be happy to get Gavin out of the house for a few hours.”

            “Fuck no,” Ryan sneered, shaking his head, “I don’t feel like doing the same mission about a million times just because Gavin can’t get his shit together.”

            “Michael’s been obsessed with kingdom crashers since we got it,” Lindsey said, playing with the paper resting in her empty basket.

            “At least you’re moving away from Halo,” Ashley huffed, pressing her cheek into her knuckles, “That’s all Burnie, Gus, Joel, and Matt play!”

            “I could use the co-op achievements though,” Ryan said, pursing his lips, “I’d rather not do that through live though.”

            “The co-op achievements are a bitch to get.” They all turned to look at Ray who was smiling sheepishly at them. “Believe me, I know.”

            “You’ve gotten them all?” Ryan said, raising an eyebrow.

            “I have every achievement for GTA,” Ray shrugged, leaning against the short end of the counter that faced the rest of the shop.

            “Really? How long did that take you?” Ryan said, leaning a bit closer.

            The girls al shared grins as Ray went on a long rant about faulty versions of the game and then his x-box exploding. By the time they had to leave, Ray and Ryan had shared gamer tags and both were smiling enough to have sore cheeks.

            “Okay, okay, you can shut up now,” Ryan huffed, still smiling a bit.

            “Fuck no, we finally found you a dude!” Lindsey said, hands on her hips and grin deadly.

            “I can’t believe how much you’re smiling,” Meg said, looking at Ryan over her shoulder, “I’ve never seen you smile that much.”

            “Or look like you actually enjoyed yourself,” Ashley said with a solemn nod.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and folded his arms. “That speaks volumes of how good of friends you are,” he said, laughing when he got three sets of glares, “Just saying.”

            “Watch yourself Haywood,” Lindsey said, shoving his shoulders with hers.

            Ryan laughed and shook his head, following the girls back to the studio. He would probably never see Ray again nor go to that shop again. He was surprised when he found an invite to a game by one BrownMan when he got home.

            He certainly didn’t accept after looking up the directions to the café. Nor did he stay up until far too early playing with Ray. And if he did, Ray wasn’t about to tell on him.

            Ryan shuffled up the Rose Café with his lips pressed into a tight line and his brows furrowed. He hung outside the door for only a moment, eyeing the table of little old ladies at the table he and the girls had sat at the day before.

            Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door opened and smiled back at Ray when he grinned brightly at him from behind the counter. They both had heavy bags under their eyes but they would live.

            “Hey, Rye. Didn’t think I’d see you again so soon,” Ray said, jabbing hid finger at the register to make the screen wake up, “What can I get you?”

            “Your food is good,” Ryan shrugged before he stared at the board for a solid minute before puffing a laugh. “Just, what I got last time? With a black coffee?”

            Ray snorted and tapped at the screen. “A black coffee? Really? No milk or sugar?”

            “Just pure caffeine,” Ryan said with a nod, “I want to be awake, not rotting my teeth.”

            Ray rolled his eyes with a grin. “Eight twenty five.”

            Ryan handed over the money, taking his change and receipt before shuffling over to the next closest table to the counter. He watched Ray work the coffee machine behind the counter for a moment as he put his money away.

            When he finally looked away to put his wallet away, he found the entire table of old women staring him down. Leaning back in his seat, he awkwardly looking around the shop, the women still staring at him out of the corner of his eye. 

            “Here’s your bitterness,” Ray said, setting a cup down in front of Ryan, “Need the boost after last night?”

            “Oh, yeah. We were at it for a while,” Ryan said jumping when a scandalized gasp came from the old women. When he and Ray looked over at them, three of the four were covering the fourth’s mouth with their hands. They waved for them to continue with wide eyes and faint blushes.

            Ryan frowned at them for a moment before Ray scowled. “We were playing video games! God you guys are gross!”

            Ryan felt himself turn as red as Ray, staring hard at the table. The women all huffed and their hands dropped. “Sorry Ray, sweetie,” the fourth said with a sheepish smile, “It’s just been a while since you’ve seen anybody.”

            Ryan raised his eyebrows and looked up at Ray who’s mouth was opening and closing like a dying fish. “We’re friends!” Ray squeaked out, folding his arms tightly.

            Ryan held back a laugh, nodding when the women all looked at him. They all sighed and shook their heads. “No shame in telling him you think he’s hot,” the woman to the left of the fourth said, pulling her white shawl closer.

            “And this one is good looking,” the woman on the right said, waving her sharp red nails at Ryan.

            “Margret!” the woman with her back mostly toward them laughed as Ray and Ryan winced. She swatted red nails and shook her head. “Leave the boys alone!”

            “Good to see I’m not the only one getting dating advice,” Ryan mumbled as the women dissolved into a small argument.

            “I knew those three with you yesterday looked familiar,” Ray said, sinking into the seat across from Ryan, “Sorry about them,” He nodded behind him, “They’re harmless, I swear.”

            Ryan laughed and shook his head. “Its fine, they seem like regulars?”

            “They’re here every day about this time,” Ray nodded, pulling at a stray string on his apron.

            Ryan nodded and smiled at Ray, trying to ignore the women watching them intensely, like they were some Sophia Opera. “I didn’t mention this last night, but how the hell did you get your Gamerscore that high?” Ryan said after an awkward silent moment.

            “Years of effort and having no life,” Ray said with a nod.

            “I can believe that,” Ryan snorted, grinning at Ray when he gave him a proud smile.

            Ray opened his mouth but froze when a bell echoed through the shop. He jumped up with an apologetic smile. “I’ll be right back,” he said before rushing off to the back, the metal door swinging behind him.

            Ryan chuckled after him before looking at the seat he was just in. The women were all grinning at him. He gave them an awkward smile and wave before they looked away and talked to each other in rushed whispers, glancing at him every so often.

            Ryan puffed a sigh, shaking his head and looking around the shop until Ray returned with his lunch. Once the basket was sitting in front of Ryan, Ray dropped into the seat and went off into a rush rant about a part of the newest Fallout game he was stuck on.

            Listening closely as he ate, Ryan watched Ray gesture and huff his annoyance. Ray really was cute and awesome and nice and funny and fucking amazing.

            When he returned to work after nearly being late getting back from his break, Lindsey told him, with a smirk, to wipe the idiotic smile from his face. “Go back to the Rose Café?” she said, batting her eyelashes innocently at him.

            Ryan huffed, pushing her back toward her desk. “Okay, you win. He’s cute and I like him,” he said, smiling and shaking his head when Lindsey did a fist pump before rushing over to her desk. She snatched up her phone and eagerly typed a message.

            For the rest of the day, Ryan’s phone buzzed constantly with messages from Lindsey, Meg, and Ashley asking him about Ray and when the wedding was going to be. Rolling his eyes, he ignored them until he had about thirty messages.

            A week later, he entered the café and waved cheerfully back to the ladies who were grinning brightly at him. Ray jumped up from the table and hurried over to the register. His eyes were bright and his cheeks red. All five of them must have been shit talking some women named Helen again. “Hey Rye, your usual?” Ray said, already pressing his fingers against the screen.

            “Yep,” Ryan said, money already in hand. When Ray handed his change back, he dumped everything into the tip jar and reclaimed his normal seat next to the counter and a table away from the women.

            “Hello Ryan, dear,” July said, waving cheerfully at him. Her wing was a little crooked, fake curled hair neater than usual.

            “How are you? Work been okay?” Margret said, tapping her now purple nails against the plastic table with a weasel’s smile.

            “I’m fine, how are you ladies?” Ryan said, smiling up at Ray when he sat next to him, carefully setting his coffee and water on the table.

            “Oh we’re fine,” Lucy laughed lightly, shaking her head at them. Her shawl was purple today, only missing one button.

            “Now’s your chance,” Liz coughed, giving Ray a pointed look. Her teeth clanked as the top gave away and smacked into the bottoms.

            Ray blushed and rolled his eyes. “Shush!” he hissed at them, giving Ryan a sheepish smile.

            Ryan grinned and leaned a bit closer to Ray, snatching up his water bottle and trying to twist the cap loose. “Chance for what?” he said, ignoring the quiet gasps coming from the women.

            Ray’s blush edged from his cheeks down his neck and Ryan’s grip tightened on the bottle to keep his eyes from following the color down. “Nothing!” Ray’s voice cracked and he scowled when Ryan laughed lightly.

            “Nice squeak,” Ryan said frowning down at the bottle. He jumped when the cap finally gave and water squirted everywhere, mainly on him and the table.

            The women let out the breath they were holding in chuckles while Ryan’s shoulders bunched up toward his ears. Ray patted his shoulder as he stood with a laugh. “I’ll get a towel,” he snickered.

            Ryan laughed and relaxed, nodding as he set the bottle down and snagged a few napkins from the dispensers Ray had recently placed on the tables next to the vases. “Ryyyyaaaan,” Margret sang, grinning at him when he looked up, “You can’t wait forever dearie.”

            “That’s right, a young man was just in here a few moments ago,” July said with a nod, “He was very interested in chatting Ray up.”

            “Not that Ray seemed interested!” Liz said, teeth clanking together.

            “He was basically pushing him out the door,” Lucy snorted, tugging at her shawl.

            “The point is,” Margret huffed at the others, “If you don’t ask him out, someone else will.”

            Ryan frowned at the women, looking down at his soaked dress shirt and pants. He and Ray had been flirting a lot more, especially now that there was rarely an awkward pause between them. He had thought about asking Ray out, he was just too awkward to try. Besides, every time he tried to be smooth, he fucked up.

            “Don’t worry so much,” July chuckled, smiling at Ryan when he looked up, “You’re all he talks about.”

            The women all nodded before quickly looking away when Ray came back in with a rag. Ryan sighed and smiled at Ray as he took the rag from him. “What happened with them?” Ray said, nodding toward the women who were all glaring at each other, but mainly at Margret.

            “No idea,” Ryan shrugged, patting his clothes, “I didn’t get you wet, did I?”

            “A little, but I’m at least wearing an apron,” Ray said, gathering up the soaked napkins and tossing them into the trash before sitting down again.

            “Okay good,” Ryan said, smiling at Ray before wiping the table.

            Ray nodded and silence encased them, but not the awkward silence that used to plague them. This was a relaxed silence that they both could enjoy. Ryan smiled to himself as he pressed the rag against his pants, the cool water chilling his skin.

            He glanced up and watched Ray for a moment. His eyes were glassy as he stared in Ryan’s general direction. His lips were tilted up slightly, brown eyes bright and happy. His hair was a mess like he tried to put some order to the black strands.

            Ryan pressed his lips together, looking over at the women who were waving at him to say something, anything. Taking a deep breath, Ryan looked back over at Ray and smiled. “Hey Ray,” he said carefully, setting the rag on the table.

            “Huh?” Ray’s eyes focused in on Ryan, “Oh, sorry. What?”

            “I-would you-“ Ryan’s mouth twisted as the words fit into his mouth like bricks that were too big. Ray’s eyes widened and his cheeks dusted pink, smile becoming wide and hopeful. The women all leaned closer with baited breath. “You-I. Would you lik-“ the sound of the bell from the kitchen made them all freeze.

            “Uh,” Ray uttered out after a moment but then the bell rang again impatiently, “I’ll be right back.” He rushed out as he leapt from his seat and rushed through the back door.

            Ryan stared after him before groaning and dropping his table onto the rag, wincing when the white rag squelched. The women sighed, slumping in their chairs. Margret was pouting, arms folded tightly.

            Ryan sighed and sat up right. He took a few deep breathes and thought about his words about a million times until Ray came back with a scowl and his food. “Sorry Rye, what were you saying?” he said, sitting down. He looked up at Ryan with an encouraging look.

            Ryan pushed out another breath, looking at Ray’s eyes and tried not to get lost. “Would you like to go on a date with me?”

            A collective gasp from the other table didn’t distract them. Ray’s eyes were wide as he smiled brightly. Ryan was struggling not to shake right out of his chair, jaw clenched. The women let out the breath they were holding as Ray nodded quickly.

            “I’d love to Rye,” Ray said, laughing when Ryan deflated in relief.

            “Holy shit, awesome,” Ryan said, smiling fondly at Ray, “Diner and games?”

            “You know me so well,” Ray said, mocking a swoon. He laughed as he leaned his head against Ryan’s shoulder.

            Ryan laughed and hesitantly wrapped his arm around Ray’s shoulder and gave him a tight squeeze. Ray blushed but didn’t move. He shifted his chair closer and snuggled into Ryan’s shoulder slightly.

            The women all grinned at each other as Ryan smiled like an absolute fool, letting his hand rest on Ray’s waist. “Alright ladies,” Margret said after they all savored the moment for long enough, “Pay up.”

            “What?” Ray and Ryan said together, frowning as Lucy, July, and Liz all begrudgingly pulled their purses from under their chairs and searched for their wallets.

            “We had a bet,” Margret said smugly, holding her hand out. Her bracelets clanked together as she curled her fingers greedily.

            “You were taking so long dearies,” July sighed, placing a few bucks into Margret’s hand.

            “We were getting bored of watching you two dance around each other,” Liz’s teeth clanked as she spoke. Spit hitting Margret’s fingers as her bet was placed into her hand.

            “You couldn’t have asked tomorrow?” Lucy huffed, tugging at her shawl once Margret had her bet.

            Ray and Ryan blinked at the women then laughed lightly, grinning at each other. Margret smirked, counting her winnings as the other women glared half-heartedly at her.


	9. The Gates of Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan dreamed of finding the Gates of Paradise, he never thought he would actually find them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> This is the full version of the Stories to Songs chapter: 277

            Rickety wooden stairs led down into a thin hallway of sandstone. Two large, heavy florescent lights sat on stands in the hallways, their cables snaking up the stairs and into a nearby tent full of wooden tables filled with large photos and a generator.

            The lights illuminated the short tunnel a large team of Egyptians, American freelancers, and an archeologist and his friend and protector found buried under tons of sand. The tunnel had a curved sandstone roof with hieroglyphs carved into the walls and ceiling.

            At the end of the tunnel was a seamless door. Two pillars flanked the sides while the door itself was sunk into the wall. Red, shining jewels untouched by dust were in the corners of the door. At the center was an impression for a ten inch tall statue to be placed.

            Hieroglyphs wrapped around the pillars and covered the entire door. The indent was boxed off from the pictures, the name Osiris was written in hieroglyphs just above the indent.

            The door seemed more like a fancy wall without seams to show how the door opened if the stone even gave away at all. However, the hieroglyphs, which were carefully documented and photographed, told the story of the Gates of Paradise.

Ray poked his head into the large tent next to the large hole in the ground they had made. A generator purred next to the door, tangled wires dripping from the machine and leading to various parts of camp. Four tables lined the tent, each had piles of carefully taken photographs of the walls of the tunnel.

            At the table resting at the back of the tent sat a tall man with short blond hair and tired blue eyes. A shadow of a beard covered his jaw and chin. His tan shirt and shorts kept the heavy heat off of his burned skin. Thin, square glasses rested on the bride of his nose, although, he continued to squint at the photo he held in his hands.

            Ray smiled and slipped into the tent, making sure the flaps closed behind him. His boots didn’t make a sound on the rough wood that lined the bottom of the tent, little piles of sand covering the wood. His own clothes were a shade darker than the man’s, his skin much darker with natural and a sun burned tan. His black hair was a mess, rough with the sand he, like the others, had given up trying to shake. His scruffy beard was well trimmed and short.

            He glanced over the man’s shoulder without touching him, shaking his head at the little words and letters scribbled onto the photo with a blue dry erase marker under different hieroglyphs. He smiled and draped himself over the man’s shoulders, pressing their cheeks together, chuckling when he felt the man jump slightly.

            “You need a break, Ryan,” Ray said, wrapping his arms around Ryan’s shoulders, “You’ve been at this for fucking hours.”

            Ryan sighed, pushing his glasses up as he rubbed his eyes with his right hand. His left reached up and squeezed Ray’s arms as he leaned back. Ray plucked the glasses resting on Ryan’s hand and set them on the table, pushing his own thick rimmed glasses up higher on his nose.

            “It’s just so fascinating,” Ryan said, dropping both hands into his lap. He smiled at the photos strewn out in front of him. “They tell a story that I’ve never even heard before. This is the origin of the myth of the Gates of Paradise!”

            “So we really have found them then?” Ray sighed, frowning down at the table.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and tangled his fingers with Ray’s. “We’ve found it. This is great news, Ray!”

            “Yeah, fucking great,” Ray spat, sighing as Ryan stood and turned to face him, their clasped hands hanging between them, “Do you remember how the story ends?”

            “If anyone is to find and open the gate, they would suffer a horrible fate,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes, “I’ve not only read that a million times and all of the workers whisper about it.”

            “That’s because it could be true! You said yourself that the first few hieroglyphs are a curse!” Ray said, shaking his hands free to fold his arms.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and took a step closer, wrapping his arms around Ray’s waist, careful of the pistols hanging from his hip, and pulled him close. “You’ve watched _The Mummy_ too many times,” he said, leaning down to press kisses into Ray’s cheeks, “Every Egyptian curse I’ve come across is as potent as those little notes your mom carved into the beams of our house. They’re creepy and threaten death if we fuck up all of the work she did on that house, but harmless.”

            Ray huffed and slowly relaxed, resting his arms on Ryan’s. “It just, doesn’t sit right with me,” he sighed, laughing lightly when Ryan squeezed him gently and peppered his face with kisses, “Being cute will not get you out of this!”

            Ryan laughed and snuggled into Ray’s neck, cheek resting on his shoulder. “We’re perfectly fine. We’ve made the discovery of the century. Can you at least try to be happy?” he said, closing his eyes and letting the crick in his neck be soothed by Ray’s thin fingers pressing into his skin.

            “I suppose,” Ray sighed, grinning when Ryan snorted, “What progress have you made with the glyphs?”

            Ryan’s head snapped up with a bright smile, eyes shining. “I just finished, I was checking my work,” he said, pulling away from Ray to flip through the leather bound notebook he had been writing in.

            Ray chuckled and came to stand beside Ryan, picking up one of the photos and trying to read Ryan’s messy half-finished translations. “Here!” Ryan said, holding the notebook out to Ray who set the photo down to take the book.

            Ray turned and leaned back against the table as he read the lines aloud. Ryan bounced beside Ray, leaning over his shoulders and following along with a gleeful smile.

            “The first Pharaoh was a young woman wishing for more than what her small village along the Nile could give her,” Ray read, smiling when Ryan rested his cheek against his head, “Her father was a fishermen while her mother was the best at making pottery. The village was surrounded by wealth and prosperity, the biggest and most populated village that side of the Nile.

            “The woman was destined by her mother to make pottery for the rest of her life, but she could hear the ideas of the others. They wanted to make a complex system to rule the land and the people in the village. She wanted to play her part in the grand scheme.

            “She had a dream one night. A beast with the head of a man and the body of a lion appeared to her, introducing himself as the great Sphinx. The beast guided her soul from her body and led her under the ground and through a beautiful gate. A tall man with green skin in white robes greeted her as Osiris upon a tall throne and promised her great power if she had her people worship himself and his family. The woman happily agreed and spent countless nights listening to the beast tell her the tales of Osiris’s family.

            “With the Sphinx’s guidance, the woman showed her people the glory of Osiris and became their leader. Her new found power wrapped around her mind and made her crooked. She believed herself a God herself.

            “Using the wealth of her people, she ordered the construction of the gate from her night journey in the exact spot that the Sphinx lead her too. The gate was created from her memory and upon entering the finished gate, she found herself in Osiris’s throne room once again.

            “Angered by the woman’s actions, the Gods forced her from their paradise and cursed her and all who would come to follow to be unable to communicate with the Gods again. Enraged by her banishment from the paradise she believed she deserved, she had the gate sealed with a key made in the shape of Osiris. Only she could open the gate and truly believed that the Gods would not be able to enter their world without the gate.

            “The Gods stayed away from the Earth, watching the humans grow and become stronger. They thought nothing of the gate and the woman, content to just watch humanity. Then, one day, when the woman was old and beginning to die, she gave the statue to her young son who would become the next Pharaoh.

            “The son, filled with curiosity, took the statue to the gate and opened the door. The Gods faced the young man, debating if they should kill him. The young man fled through the gate as they argued, closing the door tightly behind him.

            “As the young man ran away, the Gods agreed to destroy the gate. The ability to enter paradise at will was too much power in human hands. However, they could not destroy the gate without destroying themselves. The gate was located on their only connection to the human world, the spot where the first human was created.

            “Destroying the gate would mean the end of their connection to the Earth and the end of the human’s faith in them. Forced to find a new solution, they had the Sphinx bring the young man to them again in a dream. They told him that they would make him more powerful than his mother if he erased her and the gate from history.

            “There was a catch. If the young man was to betray them like his mother had, they would destroy him and the powerful land the village would become. The young man agreed and when he woke in the morning, his mother had died in her sleep.

            “His first act was to write his mother’s story on the walls and the door of the Gate of Paradise. He then had his people burry the gate under the sand and had the key destroyed. Reluctantly, he had every mention of his mother scratched off of every wall.”

“Wow,” Ray whispered when he got to the end, taking deep breaths. He looked up at Ryan who was grinning wildly at him. “That was amazing.”

            “Right?” Ryan nodded, taking the book and flipping to the next page, “The rest of the glyphs talk about how the boy’s mother was cremated and then her role in history was removed from the walls of temples and any carved stones,” he sorted through the pictures for a moment before holding up the pictures of the gate itself, “The glyphs on the door are about how the gate works and multiple warnings. Apparently, the original statue of Osiris that fit into that indent was destroyed along with the first Pharaoh’s history, but any statue could theoretically work.”

            Ray frowned and folded his arms again. “Theoretically?”

            “Which is why,” Ryan said as though Ray wasn’t giving him a worried look, “We’re going into town and buying that statue that man tried to sell us when we first got here.” He snatched up his satchel from the creaking wooden chair he had been sitting on and stuffed the book into the biggest pocket.

            “You’re what?!” Ray gasped, jaw dropping. He scrambled after Ryan when he didn’t stop walking toward the door. “Oh no, we’re not doing that!”

            Ryan rolled his eyes and threw the strap over his head. “And why not? Because of some curse that won’t do anything?”

            “But what if it _does_ do something?” Ray said, pushing the flaps aside and sliding to stand in front of Ryan, “You did read the same story I just did, right?”  
            “It’s just a story, they also believed that one God impregnated another with a lettuce leaf covered in semen, what’s your point?” Ryan said, stepping around Ray.

            Ray scowled and raced to catch up again, frowning up at the older man as he waved to the workers and their onsite doctor Jack. “My point _is,_ this place has been a horror story throughout millennia’s! What if that story is true and something horrible will happen? Humans weren’t meant to be in God’s paradise.”

            “In this same story, the first Pharaoh made everyone believe in the Gods because of a dream she had,” Ryan said, leaving the guarded gates of their dig and heading into the bazar. They were warned against setting up camp so close to one of Egypt’s most crowded bazars, but Ryan was insistent. The Egyptian government had to hand over some guards in order for the dig they were funding to stay safe. Ray still wasn’t sure how Ryan managed to convince them. Ray his men and a few freelance workers were just extra insurance.

            “Yeah, and?” Ray said, brushing his fingers over his guns just to makes sure they were still there.

            “It was a dream,” Ryan said, squinting in the harsh light to look at the vender stalls. Men and women in light robes and headdresses moved around them. A few eyed the Americans with wrinkled noses. “Osiris was a dream, the door was a dream. My point is, she could have imagined the door working at all. Who knows what’s actually behind that door.”

            Ray deep sighed and rubbed his face. “That undermines the entire religion, you know that, right?” he said, continuing to trail after Ryan, eyes on the crowd once his hands were resting on the butt of his pistols.

            “I’m not saying that, I’m saying the _door_ could be fake, not the religion,” Ryan snorted, smiling as he found the small cart he was looking for, “Sides, the religion adapted and changed with what the son apparently told everyone after erasing his mother.”

            “I don’t think that makes it better,” Ray grumbled, scowling at the short man standing under the bright umbrella stemming from his cart covered with plates and other trinkets, “Look, the people we hired to help us look terrified the instant we found the gate, doesn’t that mean anything?”

            “Not really, they believe the legend so of course their scared,” Ryan said, shuffling around a dense crowd of people surrounding a food stand.

            Ray’s jaw tensed and he grabbed the back of Ryan’s shirt, pulling him to stop. “This is a bad idea,” he said through grit teeth, “I have a horrible feeling about this!”

            Ryan sighed and grabbed Ray’s shoulders. “We’re fine, have faith,” he said squeezing his shoulders gently, “We did hire you to protect us, so just do that.”

            Ray frowned, shoulders dropping as Ryan turned away and continued on to the cart. “How about I stop a disaster before it happens?” he mumbled before slowly following Ryan to the cart.

            “Hello! I’m not sure if you remember us, but we were here a couple of weeks ago,” Ryan said to the merchant behind the stand.

            “Oh, I remember,” the merchant said, accent thick and smile crooked, “You are here for the keys to the gate of paradise.”

            Ray rolled his eyes as Ryan nodded. “I do think that statue of Osiris you have will fit what we found, yes,” he said, stuffing his hand in his pocket.

            “Ah well, I have the statue right here!” the merchant said, leaning down to pull a ten inch tall statue of Osiris from the cart, I saved it for you.”

            Ray scowled and pushed himself between Ryan and the cart. “How do you know that this is the exact key when we just dug the gates up?” he said, ignoring Ryan groaning behind him.

            “My family has had the key for centuries. My ancestors stole it from the Pharaohs,” the merchant said, waving his hand and wiggling his fingers. “Now, I wish to give it to you.”

            Ray raised an unamused eyebrow, pushing his tongue against his cheek. “Right, so, I’ve got a question for you then,” he said, brushing off the hand Ryan dropped onto this shoulder and his annoyed sigh, “Why does this statue look exactly like the one over there being sold for cheaper.” He pointed over the merchant’s shoulder at the stall directly behind his cart where multiple statues of Osiris were lined up.

            The merchant looked over his shoulder, sweating a bit more than before. “Bah, imposters!” he said, grinning with too much teeth at Ray and Ryan.

            “It doesn’t matter if it’s a fake,” Ryan sighed, standing beside Ray, “As long as it opens the gate.”

            “That seems to be what you’re not getting,” Ray snapped, shooting the merchant a glare when he started eyeing the wallet Ryan pulled from his pocket, “First of all, the original key was destroyed which means humans were never meant to open the gates anyway and second, what if a fake angers the Gods rather than open the gate?”

            Ryan sighed and gave Ray a tired smile. “I told you, there’s no curse,” he said before turning back to the merchant.

            Ray scowled as Ryan and the merchant started haggling in Coptic, the one modern language Ryan knew that Ray didn’t. With a huff, he turned away and glared at every passing person who even dared eye up Ryan’s bag.

            As his eyes scrolled over the crowd, the sun beating down on his head and his hot head not helping the heat, his brown eyes caught another pair that was a deep, red tinted brown. Ray tensed as he and the young man with dark skin and pitch black robes met eyes.

            A crooked smile of straight white teeth was sent Ray’s way, sending a chill down his spine. “Rye? Let’s go back,” Ray croaked, not looking away from the man as he waved his arm behind him until his fingers curled into the back of Ryan’s shirt.

            “Now we can go,” Ryan said triumphantly, holding the statue up while the merchant counted the surprisingly small amount of money Ryan had forked over.

            Ray swallowed sand, tearing his eyes away from the man and grabbing Ryan’s arm. “Great, let’s go,” he said, pushing them as quickly as he could through the crowd. He glanced over his shoulder, looking for the young man, but he was gone.

            Ryan linked their arms with a bright grin. “Can you see it? Headlines featuring our names. Books written about our discovery years from now. We’ll be famous!” he said, almost out of breath.

            “Isn’t it good enough that we found the damn gate?” Ray mumbled, keeping his eyes around them. He shot a man reaching out for Ryan’s bag a venomous glare that had him reeling before scurrying away, “Do we really need to open them?”  
            “Of course we do,” Ryan scoffed, smiling down at the statue, “What could be behind that door?”

            “I suppose blasting a small hole in the wall next to it and getting in that way is a no go?” Ray said, nearly gagging on the bile suddenly rising in his throat. He grit his teeth and swallowed hard, stomach churning.

            “And ruin the hieroglyphs?” Ryan gasped, pressing the statue into his chest over his heart with a faint smile, “You’re kill me.”

            Ray huffed and rolled his eyes, failing to hold back a smile when Ryan kept grinning at him. “Can we at least try to find another way in without opening the door?” he said, giving Ryan a tired smile.

            Ryan frowned and sighed. He studied Ray for a moment before smiling softly. “Of course, if that’ll make you feel better,” he said, catching Ray’s hand and squeezing his fingers before quickly letting go, “We’ll take a week to try and find another entrance or the remains of the real key.”

            “Then look no further.”

            Ray and Ryan turned toward each other to look at the young man Ray had seen before. As suddenly as his nausea had hit him, the need to vomit pressed on Ray’s stomach and throat, but he swallowed the feeling back down.

            “I know where the real key is,” the man said, arms neatly folded behind his back and smile sickly sweet.

            “You do?” Ryan said with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.

            Ray swallowed again to hold onto his lunch and got between Ryan and the man. “Who are you?” he pushed out between his teeth.

            “The key to the gate was reportedly destroyed, but the Pharaoh’s priests were wise enough to take the pieces and hide them in the dessert,” the man said, staring Ray down as his stomach protested standing even more, “My family descends from the priests.”

            “So you have it?” Ryan snorted, shaking his head and patting Ray’s shoulder, “Look, we already have a fake.”

            “I do not have it, but my family passed down the location,” the man said, grinning as Ray gagged before controlling himself again, “Are you alright? You look ill.”

            “Fuck off,” Ray spat, wobbling where he stood and folding in on himself. Ryan frowned at him and gently held him up by his shoulders, “We’re not going anywhere with you.”

            “Ray?” Ryan said, pulling Ray to his chest, “What’s wrong? Do you need to sit down?”

            The man watched Ray glare at him, his smile never wavering. “I wondered what caused all of this, now I know,” he said, taking a step closer to Ray.

            Ray gasped and retched. His knees shook until they gave out. Ryan caught him and scowled when he vomited into the sand. A few of the people around them gasped and took a step back, covering their mouths and noses.

            “Shit, you need to get back to camp,” Ryan said, gently placing Ray more on his feet, “Do you think you can walk?”

            “I shall help,” the man said, quickly grabbing Ray’s arm before Ryan could protest.

            A shiver shot through Ray before he vomited again, the stomach acid burning his throat and lips. Ray coughed as Ryan yanked a handkerchief from his bag. He pulled Ray from the man with a protective glare.

            The man took a step back, hands in the air and smile amused as Ryan helped Ray wipe his face before picking him up. Ryan cradled Ray in his arms and frowned at the man. “You walk ahead of us, I’ll tell you where to go.”

            “As you wish,” The man said, smile making Ray shiver with harsh chills that twisted and churned his stomach.

            Ray couldn’t remember the walk back to the site. He was too busy keeping his eyes squeezed closed and breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. The less he thought about each step Ryan was taking, the less likely he was to upchuck on all of them.

            He could faintly hear Ryan and the man talking. Then, as the man was left with two of Ray’s men near the entrance, Ray felt his stomach relax and his nausea float away. Ray blinked his eyes opened as Ryan carefully carried him to Jack’s tent.

            “Ryan, put me down. I’m okay,” Ray said, wiggling in Ryan’s arms.

            Ryan gasped and rushed into the tent, setting Ray down on one of the squeaky cots. “You’re not okay,” he said, looking around the tent and huffing when no one was there, “You vomited twice.”

            “Do I look like I’m going to vomit now?” Ray snorted, standing slowly and smiling. His stomach growled at him, demanding a refill.

            “Well, no. But you could have food poisoning,” Ryan said, walking over to a small table bowing in the middle under the weight of heavy first aid kits and boxes of supplies, “Did you eat anything weird?”  
            “I eat what you eat,” Ray sighed, walking over to the tent’s entrance and poking his head out. He looked both ways before spotting the man near the beginning of their camp. The man smiled at him and waved.

            Ray winced when his stomach twisted until Ryan pulled him back into the tent. “You’re sick, you need to rest,” he said, pushing Ray back toward the cot.

            “No, you don’t understand,” Ray said, slipping away from Ryan, “It’s that man! Something about him makes me sick.”

            “Duat?” Ryan’s brow furrowed before he rolled his eyes and scooped Ray up into his arms and setting him on the cot, “He’s harmless.”

            “Duat?!” Ray snapped, pushing away from Ryan and falling off of the cot, his knees still hooked on the metal edge.

            “Yes? Ray, you need to calm down,” Ryan said, leaning over the bed and offering Ray his hands, “I’ll admit you’re looking and acting much better, but you still vomited twice.”

             “His name is Duat?!” Ray said, jumping to his feet without taking Ryan’s hand, “That just screams evil!”

            Ryan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Ray, you’re over thinking this. You had food poisoning from something. There’s no way Duat made you sick and he’s not evil!”

            Ray’s jaw dropped and his arms hung in front of him. “Not ev-his name is literally the Egyptian underworld!” he said before air caught in his throat, “That’s why!”

            “What’s why?” Ryan sighed, frowning when Ray pulled at a leather cord hanging around his neck.

            “Remember those ankh’s the workers gave us before we started digging?” Ray said, pulling an elegant ankh from his under shirt, “Am I the only one who wore it?”

            “Yes and yes, I’m fairly certain that you’re the only one who wore it,” Ryan said, folding his arms and frowning at Ray, “What’s your point?”  
            Ray sighed and let the ankh drop onto his chest. “These ward off evil, they must have been reacting badly to Duat!”

            “That’s crazy, how would warding off evil make you sick anyway?” Ryan said, reaching out for Ray, “Maybe you’ve been in the sun too long.”

            Ray scowled and dodged around Ryan, “I’ll show you that I’m not just sick or paranoid,” he said, rushing out of the tent before Ryan could grab him.

            “Ray!” Ryan said, rushing out after him, smiling sheepishly at the few workers around that gave them both weird looks.

            Ray smirked and waved over the man he remembered giving him the ankh. Ryan scowled as they started speaking rapidly in Arabic. They walked over to Duat as Ray explained what was going on to the man.

            Duat narrowed his eyes at them, frowning when both Ray and the man dropped to the ground with pain groans when they got to close to him. Ryan cursed and pulled Ray away while the man’s wife helped him to his feet and hobble away. Once they were far enough away, they both looked and felt perfectly fine.

            “See?” Ray said with a smirk and his hands on his hips, “It’s not just me.”

            Ryan frowned and looked over at Duat who was frowning at Ray. “Okay, that’s-we’re going to run a few more tests,” he said, waving a few of the freelancers over.

            Anyone wearing an ankh, if they believed Ray or not, got sick when they got close to Duat. The Egyptian soldiers and workers started to get nervous as Duat stared them down. “Bring him to my tent,” he told Ray’s men before he and Ray disappeared into the tent.

            Ray ordered his men to leave them alone, an ankh at the ready in his hand. Duat and Ryan sat across from each other at the thin table that served as Ryan’s desk. Papers and books were strewn across the table top, a few on the ground. He stood at the door, ankh in one hand and his free hand on the butt of one of his guns.

            “Who are you?” Ryan said after a long moment of an intense staring contest with Duat.

            Duat hands were politely folded in his lap. “I protect the gate,” he said calmly with a gentle smile, “No human was to ever find the gate and now that you have, I have to keep you from entering. Although, I am unsure how you were able to avoid my notice for so long.”

            “Told you this was a bad idea,” Ray mumbled, tapping the butt of his gun.

            Ryan shot Ray an exasperated look before turning his attention back to Duat. “Where were you going to lead us?” he said, sitting tall and folding his arms.

            “I was going to leave you in the dessert to die,” Duat sighed, shaking his head, “I had hoped that without you two, the excavation would stop, but your lover was much more perceptive than I thought.”

            Ray and Ryan tensed, blushing for a moment as they shared glances. Duat looked between them with an amused smile. “What? It was rather obvious when you picked him up when he was ill.”

            Ryan cleared his throat and leveled Duat a glare. “Killing us would not have stopped the dig.”

            “I suppose not,” Duat said, deflating slightly, “I do not even know how you found the gates to begin with, although,” he glanced back at Ray then looked at his lap, “I have my suspicions.”

            Ryan followed Duat’s gaze with a frown. Ray shrugged, shifting from foot to foot. Shaking his head, he looked back at Duat. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do to stop this now.”

            “You must cover up the gate,” Duat said, looking up at Ryan with a new fire in his eyes, “If it is opened the world will end.”

            “It’s too late,” Ray said, shaking his head, “We already announced to the world we found it and a news crew has already aired the story. We can’t just cover it all back up and pretend we never found it. Others will come looking.”

            “And we can’t spend forever searching for the key,” Ryan said, shaking his head when Duat opened his mouth, “Someone will blow the gate if we take too long.”

            Duat snapped his mouth closed, lips pressed into a thin line. After a long moment of not breathing, eyes glazed over and searching, he opened his mouth again only for a gasp to slip free. The ground shook with an explosion as the shock wave rattled the tent.

            They all shared looks before rushing out of the tent and to the hole in the ground. “What has happened here?!” Duat snapped as they found wires running from a box with a large plunger into the hole. 

            “While you three assholes were having tea, we thought we’d get some actual work done,” A short man with a curled mustache and heavily tattooed arms sneered.

            “No,” Ryan winced, rushing over and looking down into the hole. As the dust settled in the light of the large stands, the door came into focus. The once elegant door had a large hole in the bottom right corner, big enough for someone to shimmy through. Pieces of the door littered the floor.

            “You’ve doomed us all!” Duat snarled once he saw the destruction.

            Geoff snorted and rolled his eyes, kicking the detonator aside and waving another one over. “Look, I’ve left most of the door intact, this second charge will just make that hole bigger. Unlike some people, we’re not paid by the government, we need a pay off.”

            “No, stop!” Ryan gasped, reaching for the detonator and scowling when Geoff yanked out of his reach.

            “You’ll get what you wanted and we get what we want,” Geoff snarled, stepping back and grabbing the plunger. He yelped and let go when a gunshot snapped against the metal, sending sparks into the air.

            “That hole is enough,” Ray hissed, holstering his gun, “Take the jewels from the door, those should cover your paycheck.”

            “Yeah, funny,” Geoff snarled, waving one of his workers over. She held up a bag that clicked as she shook the brown fabric gently, “That only pays for half of the shit you’ve hired us for.”

            Ray scowled but before anyone else could speak, a harsh gust of cold air pushed out of the tunnel. Ray stumbled back as dust and sand stung his eyes. The Egyptian workers gasped, a couple fleeing into the city.

            The rest of them stared at the doors with wide eyes. Duat’s heart nearly burst out of his chest as he rushed forward and snatched the detonator from Geoff’s hands. “You cannot do more damage,” he snarled, ripping the wires from the detonator.

            “Don’t-!” Geoff started, but another explosion shook the ground as they all jumped and covered their heads when more sand, dust, and pieces of the wall and door flew out of the hole.

            When the dust settled, half of the door was completely gone and littered the ground. “Now that was your fault,” Geoff snorted, waving his hand in front of his face and coughing lightly.

            “No, no. nononono,” Duat gasped, dropping the detonator. “We must repair the gate!”

            “After we get what’s inside,” Geoff snapped, taking the detonator form the sand.

            Ryan frowned and brushed debris from his hair. He looked down at Ray to make sure he was alright, but he was staring at the door with glazed over eyes. “Ray?” he said, reaching out and gently shaking Ray’s shoulders.

            “Huh?” Ray gasped, head snapping toward Ryan. His head still moved in circles and he struggled to focus on Ryan’s face.

            Ryan frowned then looked up when Geoff shouted to a couple of his workers. “Go in,” Geoff ordered the man and woman, “Get whatever you can get your hands on.”

            “If you go in there, you will die,” Ray said distantly, startling them all. Geoff’s workers froze mid-step and glanced at each other before looking at Geoff. “The instant you step foot in there, you’ll sink in the ground and go to the underworld.”

            “Go,” Geoff snapped, waving them on, shooting glares at Ray as Ryan shook him out of his stupor again.

            Duat frowned at Ray, studying his glazed over focused gaze on the gate. He was rubbing the ankh between his fingers, completely in another world. “He’s right,” Daut said as the workers started down the stairs, “You will never return, forgotten.” His eyes bore into the worker’s souls making them shiver.

            “Go. Down. There,” Geoff hissed, pushing the two on while shifting his glare to Duat.

            Duat shook his head at the workers hesitantly went into the tunnel and disappeared beyond the darkness of the gate, not even their flashlight showed against the darkness. He turned and watched Ryan take a chair offered to him by one of the diggers.

            “Ray? Hey,” Ryan said softly as he made Ray sit, “You in there?”  
            Ray wobbled where he sat, eyes drooping like they might close. “He’s alright,” Duat said, squeezing Ryan’s shoulder, “He’ll be better once the gate is repaired.”

            Ryan looked at Duat with a frown before kneeling in front of Ray and taking his hands. Ray’s entire body jumped and he looked down at Ryan. They stared at each other for a moment, Ray not really seeing Ryan and Ryan’s eyes heavy with worry and protective instinct.

            Ray smiled dazed at Ryan and Duat sighed as Ryan forced a smile back. Looking back at the gate, Duat shook his head, lips pressed into a thin line.

            When the sun was getting close to the horizon, Duat stood from where he was sitting next to Ray’s chair. He couldn’t listen to Ryan fret over Ray anymore and if he didn’t do something now, the gate would never be repaired.

            “They’re not coming back,” Duat said, startling Geoff from the nap he was falling into next to the large tent.

            “Huh what?!” Geoff gasped, nearly falling out of the chair. He blinked up at Duat and scowled. “What are you talking about?”

            “You’re workers are never coming back, let us repair the gate!” Duat said, stumbling back when Geoff suddenly stood.

            Geoff glared at Duat, waving two more workers over. Ryan came over and watched at the top of the stairs next to Duat as Geoff and his workers went to the gate. They shined a light past the door, but nothing lit up. They shouted for the workers but received no response.

            “Get in there!” Geoff said after a long moment of silence.

            “What, but-!” One of the workers said, pushing the woman in front of him, “I’m not going in there!”

            “Baby,” the woman snorted, taking the flashlight from Geoff’s hand. She stepped past the threshold and stood on the other side for a moment before suddenly dropping down into the ground.

            Geoff and the man stared at where the woman had been before Geoff grabbed the man and shoved him in. “No!” the man shouted before disappearing into the darkness.

            Geoff scowled and took a deep breath before standing in front of the gate. “Wait!” Duat snarled, making Geoff jump.

            “What are you doing?” Ryan said, rushing after Duat who hooked his arms with a still dazed Ray and hauled him to his feet.

            Duat brushed past Ryan and half carried, half dragged Ray down the stairs. “We will go in and get what you desire,” he said, pushing Geoff aside.

            “Works for me,” Geoff snorted, stepping out of the way, “You have a day.”

            “Not for me!” Ryan gasped, grabbing Ray and yanking him from Duat’s grip, “He can’t go in there, they’ll come back!”

            “No, they won’t,” Duat hissed as Geoff rolled his eyes and went back to the surface, “Listen, you and whoever you can get to help you must repair what they can of the door. The sooner he and I return, the sooner the world doesn’t end and the sooner he comes back to you normal.” He gestured to Ray who looked up at Ryan with furrowed brows.

            “Why isn’t anyone speaking English?” Ray slurred before snuggling into Ryan’s chest.

            Ryan frowned down at Ray and looked up at Duat. “You promise he’ll come back?” he said, holding Ray tighter.

            Duat sighed, unable to stop a fond smile. “I promise,” he said, hooking his arm with Ray’s again, “I won’t let anything happen to him.”

            Ryan nodded and watched Duat pull Ray through the gate, the blackness moving around them and then sealing them in. “I have a horrible feeling about this,” he mumbled before stooping to gather up what pieces of the door that remained.

 

* * *

 

            Ray’s brow furrowed as he blinked and the world cleared around him. He wasn’t really sure when everything had gotten so blurry or dark. He felt his feet being dragged behind him and cold hands holding him up.

            Frowning, he looked up and blinked at the blurry human shape holding him. “Wha?” he slurred, trying to catch his feet under him.

            “Just relax,” Duat said, keeping his eyes ahead of them, “Once we’re out of here you’ll feel better.”

            Ray blinked then let his heavy head drop. His feet dragged behind him again as he tried to make the ground come into focus. Everything seemed faded and blurry, occasionally becoming clear only to blur again.

            “Okay,” Duat panted after a while, “Get on your feet.”

            Ray had to cling to Duat’s black robes as he managed to get his feet under him, his knees knocking together. “What’s happening?” he slurred, frowning up at Duat.

            “That was the first trial,” Duat said, looking behind them. Ray followed his gaze and frowned at the pitch black room behind them. Smoke and fog leaked from the doorway, edging toward them. “That fog messes with the mind.”

            “Oh,” Ray said, uncurling his fingers from Duat’s robes slowly as his legs finally stopped shaking, “Where the fuck are we?”

            “We’re in the labyrinth the Gods made for any human that dared enter the gates,” Duat sighed, keeping his arm linked with Ray’s, “They were certain that no one would find the gate, but they wanted to be safe. Whatever human made it past their trials deserved to find paradise, or cheated. Only someone like you could get past the threshold and only someone like me could get past the second because the fog does not affect me. If it was just you, we’d still be back there.”

            Ray tensed and tried to slip his arm from Duat’s, scowling when he wrapped his arms around his own and held on. “Why the fuck am I in here? Why are you here? Why are you hugging my arm? What the fuck are you talking about?”

            Duat sighed and held onto Ray’s arm until he stopped struggling. “The only reason your lover was able to find the gate was because of you,” he said, glaring at Ray.

            “What? I didn’t do shit!” Ray snapped, trying to yank his arm free again, “And will you let go!”

            “Shut up and listen,” Duat hissed, eyes flashing red. He stared Ray down as he flinched and stopped moving. When Ray nodded, he continued. “You are one of the few humans chosen to have extreme luck and an extraordinary talent. When you die, they will allow you entrance into paradise.”

            “But, why me? I’m literally nothing special,” Ray said, shaking his head, “I can’t do anything.”

            Duat raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “You are an excellent marksman, no?”

            Ray opened his mouth then snapped his jaw shut. “Okay, so I’m one of these people, doesn’t answer the rest of my questions.”

            Duat sighed and tugged Ray to walk again, smirking when he stumbled. “Since you are a chosen warrior, your luck allowed Ryan to find this place, slipping from my notice until it was too late.”

            “Yeah, but why? Don’t you, ya know, live here?” Ray said, wrinkling his nose, “Or something?”

            “Yes, I do, in a way,” Duat sighed, shaking his head, “But you wanted Ryan to have everything he’s ever worked for, thus you two found this place.”

            Ray blinked at Duat then smiled softly. “Oh,” he said, remembering Ryan’s utter glee when he removed a shovel of dirt and found the door.

            Duat glanced over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. “Really, no one else in that camp knows? I don’t need to be a divine being to know.”

            Ray blushed and shook his head. “Okay, so that’s how we found the gates, but why are we here?”

            “Well, if I was to enter the gate on my own, I’d end up in paradise where I belong, which is not what we needed. As long as I’m linked arms with you, a mortal whose time in paradise has yet to come, I can be in the trials where the last room is a room of treasure to hopefully distract anyone who had made it that far,” Duat said, moving faster now that Ray could keep pace with him, “If I hadn’t have brought you in here, you would have wondered in anyway. The gate was calling to you.”

            “So our arms are linked because you’d go poof if they weren’t?” Ray said, scowling down at their arms. Daut had finally released his tight hold, their arms hanging loosely against each other, “And is that why I can’t remember jack shit since the first explosion?”

            “Basically,” Duat nodded, sighing as he spied the next challenge in the distance, “I also promised Ryan that I would bring you home safely.”

            Ray took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay, so, why do we need to get to the treasure room?”

            “Because that man, Geoff, he wanted his pay off and was going to keep sending people in until I got in trouble with down below,” Duat sneered, shaking his head, “This was the only way for me to give them time to fix the door. We have a day to get through here.”

            Ray frowned, letting their footsteps echo through the long, bland hallway. “Okay, I have a lot of questions.”

            “Of course you do,” Duat huffed, shaking his head with a faint smile.

            “First, if you’re a divine being, why don’t you just use magic to fix this?” Ray said, frowning at Duat. The man was only an inch taller than him but always managed to seem taller than Ryan.

            “Because I was like you,” Duat sighed, squeezing Ray’s arm, “I excel at music, not battle or trickery. The only magic I poses is making people sick. The Gods gave me this job because I was competent enough to lead people away from the truth or kill them before they got too far.”

            “Okay, what was that about the sick thing?” Ray said, glancing at the blank walls around them.

            “It happens naturally,” Duat said, frowning at the ground, “I had forgotten until you and the others started to get sick near me.”

            Ray frowned and looked at the floor. There was a moment of silence before Ray looked at the walls again. “Next question, why the fuck can we see down here without any light?”

            Duat laughed lightly and shook his head. “Because this place lights itself, if it chooses to. We both have the favor of the Gods so we can see.”

            Ray nodded and looked up as the floor turned from stone to sand. A massive room opened up in front of them. A wall stretched out two feet in front of them, carefully carved patterns running the length. There was a gap between the top of the wall and the ceiling tall enough for a person to stand on top of the wall and still not be able to touch the ceiling with their arms stretched out above them.

            “Please tell me this isn’t a maze,” Ray said, squeezing his eyes shut.

            “It’s a maze,” Duat sighed, shaking his head, “Come, we’re short on time.” Ray groaned as Daut pulled him into the maze, following the right wall.

 

* * *

 

            Not much of the door was left after being blown up twice. Ryan reveled in the fact that he had pictures of the original door. Ryan and the few diggers remaining worked on the pieces while Ray’s men and the soldiers guarded their tent and the gate itself.

              Using Ryan’s photos, they carefully tried to piece together the remains of the door. They used super glue to hold the pieces together. Just as they managed to piece together the majority of what they had, a few diggers mixing plaster together to fill in anything missing, the sun sunk below the horizon.

            The man and woman guarding the gate above ground were keeping an eye on Geoff and his workers who were glaring back. They all froze when a low, long howl raced from the gate. The guards turned and looked down the stairs, bringing their guns up.

            Black fog oozed from the gate and up the stairs. The guards backed away as the freelancers pulled their pistols and blades. The black smoke continued to cover the ground. The guards stopped retreating, letting the fog hit their legs.

            “What the?” the man said, trying to lift his foot. He felt like he was trying to pull his leg out of quick sand or thick, sticky mud.

            “Stop!” the woman said, raising her gun toward the hole. Clicking footsteps echoed through the hallway. “I said stop!”

            The clicking continued until tall wooden ears poked out of the overflowing fog. The guards and freelancers gasped and struggled to step back as a creature wearing a wooden mask with a long snout and a gold headdress that cascaded over the creature’s shoulder emerged from the hole. The creature’s arms and legs were covered in dirty, graying cloth, thick gold braces on its wrist. A gold chest plate glowed in the moonlight as a white cloth wrapped around its waist and was tied in the front covered its crotch. Tall gold sandal boots reached the creature’s wrapped knees.

            The guard’s guns were raised to their shoulders, trembling slightly, as the creature slammed the bottom of a golden spear onto the ground. The creature looked down at them, nearly twice their height. Its eyes glowed red against the black wood of the mask.

            The woman began to mumble a prayer under her breath as the man groped his chest for the ankh Ray had ordered him to wear. The creature looked between them, head tilted to the side.

            A gunshot ran through the camp, hitting the creature’s shoulder and making it jerk with the hit. Geoff’s eyes widened as the creature’s head snapped toward him, the bullet dropping from its shoulder flattened, but the creature was completely unharmed.

            “What the fuck is that thing?” One of the other freelancers gasped, struggling to back away again.

            The creature looked them over then raised its free hand. The human’s tensed as the echoing sound of an army came from the hole. Moments later, fifty creatures like the first, only smaller and dressed in silver instead of gold, came from the hole and flanked the creature’s sides.

            By now, the black fog had reached the edge of the camp and stopped. The soldier’s left two men at the camp’s entrance and slowly forced their way through the camp. Ryan and the diggers all glanced at each other nervously before Ryan waved for all of them to continue working.

            Ryan trudged his way out of the tent and looked up at the hole. “Dear God,” he breathed, tensing when the gold creature’s head snapped to look at him. It tilted his head then gestured toward its chest.

            Ryan reached up to his own chest and found Ray’s ankh hanging from his neck. He had been wearing it since Duat dragged Ray into the gate. The younger man had dropped it on the descent down the stairs and by then he wasn’t able to catch them.

            Looking back up at the creature, he found it nodding at him, hand on its chest. “Wear an ankh,” he shouted first in English then in Coptic, turning away to try and get back into the tent.

            Two of the silver creatures stopped in front of him, pointing their spears at the gold creature. Swallowing hard, he nodded and turned away as one of the diggers peered out of the tent with wide eyes. Ryan held his ankh up as he slowly backed toward the gold creature.

            The man looked at Ryan for a long moment before nodding and disappearing back into the tent. Ryan sighed and looked at the soldiers and freelancers. A few of them were pulling ankhs over their heads while others were shaking their heads. All of Ray’s men were holding onto their charms for dear life.

            Turning, Ryan trudged his way over to the golden creature who kneeled to study him. After a long, tense moment where Ryan tried not to look into the creature’s eyes, echoed words bounced around in his skull making him wince. They were speaking in a language he couldn’t recognize. When the voice stopped, the creature stared at him expectantly, tilting his head when Ryan didn’t say anything.

            After a moment, the voice began again in a different language. Ryan frowned as the creature seemed to huff, its chest puffing up before deflating. “Uh, English?” he croaked, forcing an awkward smile.

            The creature tilted its head then the voice began again, but this time Ryan could understand. “You and your kind have only this night to survive. Any wearing an ankh will survive. All others will be killed. If the gate is not repaired by the next rising of the moon, the world shall parish. Tell your kind that they will have to survive till the sun sits on the horizon.”

            Ryan’s eyes widened and he nodded rapidly. The creature nodded and stood, staring down at Ryan. “Go.”

            “Wear your ankhs!” Ryan shouted, nearly falling when his legs still weighed like led in the fog, “Now!”

            When none of the humans remaining not wearing ankh’s moved, the creatures roared then rushed toward the freelancers and soldiers. Ryan curled in on himself when creatures rushed past him, gasping and struggling when the golden creature’s hand fell onto his shoulder.

            “Warn those wearing the charms but still fighting that we will not attack, but our master will,” it told him before releasing his shoulder.

            Ryan stumbled back and was surprised to find that he could. His feet no longer weighed in the fog. He looked at his legs and the fog coming up to mid-shin before looking up at the creature who was staring him down again.

            Swallowing hard, he turned and ran toward the soldiers, shouting the creature’s words over the gunshots and inhuman yells. He flinched as a wild shot from a pistol nearly hit him. He turned and saw one of the freelancers with a spear through their chest, silver light cracking up their bodies before filling their eyes.

            Ryan gasped, eyes wide, when the freelancer exploded into silver light before disintegrating into dust. The creature who owned the spear snapped around and roared at him before a bullet cracked its wooden masked and it wiped around toward one of the soldier’s holding an ankh. The creature stared down the woman before rushing after another soldier.

            Swallowing bile and trembling, Ryan scrambled back toward the worker’s tent. One of the creatures was reaching for the flaps, stopping when he shouted and held Ray’s ankh up, getting between the creature and the tent.

            The creature tilted its head at him before nodding once and moving on. Breathing hard, chest tight, he stood there for a long moment, trying to understand what the ever loving fuck was happening.

            Swallowing thickly, he turned and poked his head into the tent. The men and women diggers were cowering away from the flaps against a table. One of the women, with heavy tears in her eyes, pointed at the ground.

            Frowning, Ryan squinted and saw the shape of a person past the black fog. The form wasn’t moving, not even to breathe. In fact, the form looked a little, flat. Pressing his lips together and not really wanting to think about the body, Ryan looked back at the workers and told them with as even a voice as he could manage, that they were to not take their ankhs off for any reason and that he would keep them safe.

            “Try to stay above the fog,” he added before turning back to the massacre in front of him. A few people and creatures were running around still, but the majority of the creatures were lined up on front of the golden creature with their spears pointed at a line of guards and Ray’s men protecting the remaining freelancers.

            Looking at the entrance of the camp, he saw a few more creatures and soldiers in a similar standoff, a few of the soldiers slamming their hands against an invisible wall keeping them in.

            “No wonder the town’s not doing anything,” Ryan mumbled, gasping when a sudden chill shot up his spine. Looking back over at the hole, the golden creature was kneeling just in front of the stairs, head bowed.

            Frowning, he took a step forward only to be frozen by a sharp shot of cold racing up his spine. A transparent black mass pushed itself from the hole, rising high above the creatures and their tents. The mass formed a cat-like shape, stepping over the creatures to stare down at the humans.

            The soldier’s and other armed men raised their shaking guns, swallowing hard as the faceless cat stared down at them. One of Ray’s men held his breath and fired at the cat, his bullet sailing through the creature’s head, the bullet’s path clearing out the black mass for a moment before the cat’s head reformed.

            Without a second thought, the cat’s muzzle opened until its entire head was an unhinged jaw. The other humans watched in horror as the man yelled as he fired more and more rounds into the cat as it leaned down and engulfed him.

            Ryan’s jaw dropped as the man’s body flailed and twisted. Muffled screams of pain echoed through their bodies as the man’s skin bubbled and boiled until he went limp. The skin and bones melted into the black mass as it roared.

 

* * *

 

            “Wait!” Duat gasped, yanking Ray back just in time for an arrow to wiz past his nose.

            Ray blinked slowly, hand rising to clench his shirt over his heart. “Alright, what the fuck!” Ray snarled, glaring at Duat, “I thought you said you knew the way!”

            “I thought I did!” Duat huffed, looking around them, “We must have taken a wrong turn?”

            “No shit,” Ray snapped, folding his arms the best he could with Duat’s arm still linked with his, “No traps on the right path, right?”

            “Right,” Duat sighed, rubbing his forehead.

            Ray scowled and looked up at the ceiling. He let Duat yank him in another direction, looking between the ceiling and the top of the maze. “Hold it,” he said, stopping short and nearly falling to the floor with Duat when he stumbled and slipped on the sand.

            “What?!” Duat growled, frowning up at Ray.

            “Sorry,” Ray said, helping Duat to his feet with a sheepish smile, “I have an idea.”  “And what’s that?” Duat sighed, gasping and stumbling when Ray tried to push himself up on his shoulder, “What are you doing?”

            “We’re going over,” Ray said, reaching for the top of the wall. His fingertips just brushed the ledge of the wall when Duat slipped from under him, letting him fall face first into the sand.

            “Are you crazy?” Duat said, frowning down at Ray, still holding onto his wrist, “The ceiling will crush us!”

            Ray pushed himself up on his free hand, spitting sand out of his mouth. Glaring at Duat, he slowly got to his feet. “Then we’ll drop back down into the maze. We’ll at least see where we’re supposed to be going.”

            Duat frowned before sighing and looking at the top of the wall. “Fine, we’ll try it,” he sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

            “Great, now how are we going to get up there without letting go of each other?” Ray said, frowning at Duat.

            Daut groaned and kneeled down. “Get on my shoulders, we’ll work it out when we get there.”

            “Alright,” Ray shrugged, putting his legs on either side of Duat’s head. He wobbled and accidentally slammed one hand down on Duat’s head trying to keep his balance as Duat stood, holding onto his shins.

            “Ow,” Duat said blandly, stumbling slightly once he was on his feet.

            “Sorry,” Ray mumbled, slowly letting go of his head and reaching up. He easily grabbed onto the edge of the wall.

            With a grunt, he pulled himself up, Duat’s hands still clinging to his legs. Once most of his upper body was on the thick ledge of the wall, he looked up at the ceiling and waited to see if he needed to roll back down.

            There was a tense moment of silence before Duat sighed and Ray wiggled sideways on the wall. “Hold onto my left foot,” Ray grunted, swinging his right leg up onto the wall once Duat let go. Duat clenched his jaw, already on his toes to hold onto Ray’s foot.

            Grinding his teeth as he twisted his body around and dropped his arm over the ledge, he sighed in relief when Duat grabbed his hand and let go of his leg and he could lay straight again. “Okay,” he panted, crouching and holding both arms down, “We can do this,”

            Duat frowned as Ray started to pull him up, he pushed his feet off of the wall to try and help. Once he was close enough, he grabbed onto the ledge.

            With Ray pulling on his robes, Duat pushed himself up onto the wall with his feet. They panted and gave each other tired smiles as they laid on top of each other on the wall. “This sucks,” Ray said, tilting his head back against the top of the wall.

            Duat puffed a laugh and pulled Ray to his feet. “We’re not even done yet. We have one more trial after this and then the treasure room. Then we have to go back.”

            “Fuuuuck,” Ray groaned, wobbling on his feet slightly. With a sigh, he looked around and pointed toward a door in the distance. “Is that where we’re going?”

            Duat squinted at the door, frowning. He looked back and studied the door on the other end of the room from the one Ray was pointing at. “Yes, it is.”

            Ray frowned then shrugged, following the wall toward the door. “How can you tell?”

            “The writing on top,” Duat said, following Ray along the top of the wall, “One says exit, the other entrance.”

            “How fucking convenient,” Ray snorted, looking down at the sand.

            Duat glanced up at the ceiling nervously. “More than that is convenient,” he mumbled, shaking his head and following Ray with their hands hanging between them.

            Just as they got closer to the exit, they froze as dust suddenly fell from the ceiling and the grind of stone on stone followed the roof rattling then rapidly moving down. Ray and Duat glanced at each other before running straight for the door, jumping over gaps. Duat just felt his hair brush the ceiling when Ray jumped down to the floor in front of the exit, yanking him down with him.

            They both tumbled in the sand, arms twisting as they clung to each other’s hand. They groaned as they untangled themselves, looking up at the ceiling as the smooth stone met the top of the walls and stopped.

            Coughing on the sand they kicked up, they squinted against the dust flying into the air as the walls shifted to be a straight line from the exit to the entrance. “Huh,” Duat said as he pulled them to their feet.

            “Guess going back will be easier than we thought,” Ray mumbled, looking down the hallway to the next challenge.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan was still frozen in place as chaos broke out around him. Those wearing ankhs tripped over each other trying to rush into any tent, many running for Ryan as the black mass roared again. Without their line of protection, those not wearing ankhs were attacked by the creatures again.

            Among the panic, the black mass carefully stepped over the creatures and those with ankhs not attacking it. Anyone firing their weapons at the black mass were all completely out of luck.

            A few of the creatures herded those no longer fighting toward Ryan, letting him pull them into the tent. One woman tripped just before she caught Ryan’s hand. His entire body ached when he heard the sickening crack of her bones being crushed flat under the weight of the fog.

            The creature just shook its head before moving on to the next panicked human. Ryan stared at her body wide eyed until Geoff slammed into him, grabbing at the ankh around his neck. Shocked out of his stupor, he grabbed Geoff’s hands and pushed him into the tent, ignoring the mustached man’s wide eyed stare and trembling.

            “Someone give him an ankh!” Ryan called into the tent before turning toward the creature who had been chasing Geoff.

            Ryan swallowed hard and shakily raised his ankh. The creature nodded and left. Ryan let out the breath he was holding, unable to take in more air when the black mass’s leg dropped to the ground in front of him.

            Ryan looked up with wide eyes, the ankh slipping from his trembling fingers. The black mass stared down at him before crouching down. The head tilted before silver, pupil-less eyes opened.

            Barely breathing, he stared back at the cat-like mass, hoping it didn’t decide to eat him. Its tail swished behind it, knocking over Jack’s tent and temporarily clearing the fog. Ryan was sort of glad Jack had gone into town for more medicine and supplies, and was not expected to be back until morning.

            The black mass rolled onto its side, continuing to stare at Ryan. Swallowing down a lump, he glanced around as the creatures slowly searched the camp, opening all of the tents. He was the only human left outside who was alive.

            “N-nice cat,” Ryan stuttered, voice rough, “Please don’t eat me.”

            The black mass suddenly sat up, leaning close to Ryan. Instinctively, he leaned back, squeezing his eyes shut and turning his head, waiting for the no doubt painful feeling of the cat eating him. When nothing happened, he cracked an eye open and found the cat gone.

            Lungs finally functioning properly, he relaxed and looked around. He nearly stumbled and fell when a furry black animal suddenly launched itself at his shoulder. Ryan held perfectly still as a black cat rubbed its head against his.

            Holding his chest over his heart, he took long, deep breaths. “What the fuck?” he breathed, craning his neck to look at the cat. Pure silver eyes without pupils stared back at him, making his heart drop.

            He jumped a mile when a terrified scream filled the air. The cat mewed as Ryan turned and watched the creatures rip a tent to pieces. Some of Ray’s men and two freelancers stood in a small group, all with guns raised and shaking.

            The creatures didn’t attack them, instead they started herding them toward Ryan. When one of the men raised his gun, almost pulling the trigger, the cat hissed and Ryan shouted. “Stop! Don’t shoot!”

            The man stopped and tensed. He looked at Ryan and the cat before dropping his gun to the ground, yelping when the gun crunched and popped under the weight of the fog. Ryan sighed and let the men into the rapidly filling tent.

            When he turned back around, the golden creature was directly behind him, making him jump again. The other creatures were already back to searching the tents. The golden creature looked at the cat which stared back. Ryan watched another tent get ripped apart and the horrible slaughter of a few freelancers as the two creatures had a staring contest.

            “Our master wishes to stay with you,” the golden creature’s voice echoed in his head, making his head snap back to the creature, “You do not get a choice in the matter.”

            Ryan opened his mouth then snapped his jaw closed, teeth clicking together. The cat purred and rubbed its head against Ryan’s again. “Of course,” he croaked, flinching when the golden creature patted his shoulder before overseeing the search of the tents.

            “I need a new job,” Ryan mumbled, glancing at the cat and hesitantly reaching up to scratch the cat’s head. He smiled shakily when the cat rubbed its head against his fingers with a happy mew.

            Ryan watched the creatures destroy tents and search for survivors, cat on his shoulders purring loudly in his ear and tail tickling his skin. Just as they found another small group hiding in a tent, spears raised to turn them into silver dust, the creatures froze.

            Ryan frowned and looked up at the sky when the cat hissed. The sun was just peaking over the horizon. The creatures rushed back toward the gate, leaving the humans. Ryan stepped back as creatures rushed past them, the fog rapidly receding.

            Squinting against the days first light, he watched as, once the sun sat on the horizon, the creatures left above ground disintegrated into dust. The last to fall was the golden creature who turned and stared at him as it disappeared with the wind.

            “Holy shit,” Ryan breathed, reaching up to scratch the cat’s head. A few brave people peaked out of the tent, looking up at him for guidance.

            “What the fuck happened?” Jack gasped from the entrance, staring at a crushed body in horror, the blood pouring out onto the sand and clumping the grains.

            “You have no idea,” Ryan sighed as the cat meowed at him.

 

* * *

 

            “Okay, I don’t get it,” Ray said, frowning at the long platform that stood between them and the treasure room. On either side of the platform was empty darkness.

            “It’s a scale,” Duat said, frowning at the darkness, “When we step on one side, the other will go up.”

            Ray sighed and bit his lip. “Okay, so this is like the scale that weighs your heart against a feather?”

            “Probably, yes,” Duat said, scuffing his sandals against the hard stone.

            Ray nodded once and studied the platform. “Alright, we’ll run it,” he said, trying to pull Duat forward.

            “That seems like a horrible idea,” Duat mumbled, stepping closer to the platform beside Ray.

            “What else are we going to do?” Ray said, taking a deep breath, “Are you alright?”

            Duat looked down into the darkness again. “Let’s just say I’m afraid of deep chasms,” he said, forcing himself to look up and take a deep breath.

            “Pretend it’s all invisible blocks,” Ray shrugged, refusing to look down, “That’s what I’m doing.”

            Daut furrowed his brow at Ray before sighing and focusing on the door. “Let’s just, get this over with,” he said, squeezing Ray’s hand.

            Ray smiled and squeezed his hand back. “On three,” he said, taking another deep breath, “One, two…three!”

            They leapt from the solid ground of the threshold and sprinted across the scale, feeling the stone slowly get steeper under their feet. Ray could feel his teeth grinding throughout his skull as they reached the middle and the scale started to tip down.

            “Faster!” Duat shouted, pulling Ray along. They had death grips on each other’s hand, bodies trembling as the scale tipped down slightly faster as they reached the end.

            They jumped as they reached the edge, the top of the exit just in sight. The air was knocked out of them as they hit the wall then slid down to the thin lip protruding from the hallway. They fell slightly into the hallway, feet hitting the ground hard before they tumbled to the ground.

            Breathing hard, they sat up and looked at the scale which evened out. They laughed as solid ground appeared around the scale. “Holy fuck,” Ray breathed, falling back against the ground, looking up at the ceiling.

            “We’re alive,” Duat rasped, falling back next to Ray, “Thank the Gods.”

            They laid there for a few minutes before getting onto shaking legs and wobbling down the hallway.

 

* * *

 

            The freelancers and soldier’s left slowly emerged from the tent and out from under the feet of the diggers frantically trying to finish the door. Ryan convinced them to clean up and care for the dead littered around the camp.

            Jack led them through the processes of identifying the bodies and keeping the crushed pieces together. Everyone gave Ryan a wide birth, eyeing the cat perched on his shoulders. The cat’s completely silver eyes stared everyone down, regardless of cute mews.

            Ryan sighed as the dry door was thrust into his hands. The entire camp stood at the entrance of the tunnel, watching with fearful eyes as Ryan and the cat fixed what was left of the door still attached to the wall.

            “Will this even work?” Ryan mumbled as he plastered the jagged sides of the hole to be smooth and match the piece leaning against the wall behind him.

            The cat meowed and seemed to nod, jumping from Ryan’s shoulder to the floor. Ryan sighed and rolled his shoulders. The cat hadn’t weighed much, if anything at all. “What even are you? And why me?” he said, glancing back at the cat before focusing on his putty knife and bucket of plaster.

            The cat mewed again, curling up into a ball and resting its head on its paws. It had let Ryan check its stomach and where its genitals should have been. There was nothing there to identify the cat as any gender. Nothing indicated that cat even had a bowl system either, it turned its nose up at food as well.

            Sighing, Ryan carefully smoothed out the plaster and stood. “There, that should do it,” he said, picking up the bucket of plaster. The cat meowed and pawed at his leg.

            Ryan stared down at the cat and set the bucket down. Kneeling down, he picked the cat up under its front paws and cradled it in his arms. He smiled slightly when the cat snuggled into his chest. Shaking his head, he grabbed the bucket again and walked up the stairs.

            “I-is it done?” Geoff said, hiding behind a few of his freelancers.

            “Yeah, now we have to wait for Ray and Duat to return,” Ryan sighed, setting the bucket down.

            “We should close that hell hole up now!” Geoff said, pushing from behind the two women and jabbing his finger at Ryan.

            Ryan scowled as the cat hissed and Geoff yanked his hand back. “You’re the one whose greed got us into this mess, we’re waiting for them.”

            The diggers all nodded, glancing at Geoff nervously. Geoff glared back at Ryan before snorting and storming away. Ryan watched him leave, frowning. He waved over two of Ray’s men. “No one is allowed down there until Duat and Ray return,” he said, waving a few more men over.

           

            “Holy shit,” Ray breathed, looking around the entirely gold room. The glittering gold danced in his eyes as he looked at statues, jewelry, chest, and all manors of riches.

            “We can only take one thing,” Duat said, frowning at the tall statues of Anubis lining the walls.

            Ray nodded and looked around the room again. He walked over to a gold chest with scrolls neatly laid inside. “What are these?” he said, picking up one of the scrolls.

            “Laws? History? Whatever? Does it matter?” Duat sighed, shifting from foot to foot.

            Ray carefully placed the scroll back inside. He looked over the box then at the multitude of scrolls inside. “If we take something that has stuff already in it, is that okay?”

            Duat frowned and glanced up at the statues again. The heads had moved to follow their every move. Duat winced and clenched his jaw when the statues all nodded. “Perfectly, fine, let’s leave.”

            “Cool,” Ray grinned, closing the chest and picking the case up with a grunt, “Shit this is heavy.”

            The statues looked away as Duat took one of the elegant handles and let the chest dangle between them with their hands. “There, now let’s leave.”

            Ray nodded and followed Duat through the door, not noticing the statues following their every move.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan sat with the four guards he had placed in front of the gate, cat on his shoulders. He had brought them food and chairs, talking with them in the cool tunnel. Ryan sighed as the conversation stopped as the men tensed and glared over his shoulder.

            “Their time’s almost up,” Geoff said, arms folded and eyeing the cat nervously as it hissed at him, “We should close the gate.”

            “They’ll come back,” Ryan said, petting the cat from its head down to its tail. It was curled up in his lap, glaring at Geoff.

            “What if they don’t?” Geoff said, stomping forward, only to back up when the cat spat literal acid at him. They all watch the glob of black goo sink into the ground, smoke pouring from the hole.

            “They will,” Ryan said after a moment, rubbing behind the cat’s ears.

            Geoff scowled, eyeing the finished half of the door just behind the guards. “You won’t get far,” one of the men said, raising his gun.

            Geoff opened his mouth to respond when footsteps made them all tense. Ryan picked the cat up and stood from his chair. The guards leapt up from theirs, backing away quickly from the gate. Geoff was already running into camp and toward the bazar.

            The cat purred in Ryan’s arm, pulling itself up to his shoulders. The men were inches from fleeing for their lives as the steps got closer. Then, suddenly, from the darkness, Ray and Duat tumbled from the portal, panting, sweaty, and tired. A glittering gold chest sat between them.

            “You’re back,” Ryan breathed before rushing forward to scoop Ray up into his arms. He tripped over the chairs before finally getting to them, the men pushing the chairs aside with relieved smiles.

            Ray laughed and hugged Ryan back, blinking at the cat when he nearly came face to face with it. “What the fuck? You replaced me with a cat?”

            Ryan leaned back, laughing lightly. “Not willingly,” he said, watching the cat crawly down his arms and onto Ray’s shoulders. Ray laughed as the cat rubbed its head against his.

            “He’s cute,” Ray said, petting the cat’s head.

            Duat looked at the cat in horror before groaning. “I just- it doesn’t matter. Now’s not the time, we must close the door.”

            “I couldn’t agree more,” Ryan mumbled, walking over to the plaster door, “Will this work?”

            “Perfect, just, let everyone clear out first,” Duat said, handing the chest to Ray’s men before pushing them out of the tunnel.

            Once the men were off the stairs, Ryan carefully slipped the door into place in the hole in the gate. Once he stepped away, a bright light flashed. When they were able to see again, the door was exactly as they found the gate.

            “Woah,” Ray mumbled, gasping when he felt the ground shift under his feet. The cat hissed as he looked down and saw sand rapidly covering his feet.

            “Move!” Duat shouted, pushing Ray and Ryan toward the stairs. Just as they got halfway up the stairs, the sand was up to their waists and Duat’s shoulders. The diggers grabbed their arms and pulled them out, the cat jumping to the ground.

            Once they were free, Ray and Ryan turned and grabbed Duat’s arms before his head disappeared under the sand. Freelancers, diggers, soldiers, and Ray’s men all grabbed onto their shirts and arms, pulling until Duat’s hands, then head, then body was free from the sand.

            Duat coughed up sand as they stared at the ground where the tunnel had been. The sand looked like they hadn’t spent months digging down deep, searching for what they should have never found.

            Swallowing sand and adrenaline, Ryan liked his lips and looked up at the camp, two of the freelancers holding Geoff by his arms. “We will never speak of this again.”

            He got a series of rapid nods as the cat meowed, pleased. Duat laughed and laid on the ground, eyes closed. Legs still shaking, Ryan stood and stumbled over to the chest. He cracked the lid open and his eyes grew wide at the sight of the scrolls.

            “I figured we should all get something out of it,” Ray mumbled from where he laid in the sand next to Duat.

            Ryan laughed lightly and waved for one of the diggers to get something to put the scrolls in. Once the scrolls, which were made centuries ago but were perfectly preserved, were carefully placed into a plastic bin along with the pieces of the door they couldn’t place in the plaster, Ryan handed the chest to the freelancers.

            They were packed up and ready to leave the next day. The diggers went back to their lives with Ryan’s card so they could reach him if anything happened. Geoff and the freelancers disappeared the night before with their chest.

            Ryan heard them leave as he laid awake in his tent where Ray and Duat were fast asleep. Even the cat was asleep, curled up on Ray’s chest. Ryan couldn’t bring himself to sleep yet, listening for the creatures to return.

            He knew that is he tried to sleep, he would dream of the horrors of that night. When he heard the freelancers clanking around, he poked his head out along with the others who survived that hell of a night. No one said anything when Geoff gave them equally tired looks. They went back to their tents silently, Ryan enjoying the fact that Ray was beside him again and everything would eventually go back to normal.

            In the morning, Ray’s men helped finish the pack up, loading everything into military vehicles, including the bodies which were to be shipped to their families. Ray drove the lead car, Ryan fast sleep in the passenger seat next to him. Duat and the cat, who was apparently the cat Goddess Bastet, sat in the backseat.

            “So, uh, what now?” Ray said once they were days away from the city.

            “The Gods erased the world’s memory,” Duat said, petting Bastet’s head, “The Egyptian government will make sure you get out of the country completely fine, unbothered that they spent all of this money on you.”

            Ray nodded, biting his lip and glancing at Ryan whose chin was against his chest, lips parted slightly. “Why do we remember?”

            “You survived, you deserve it,” Duat shrugged, smiling when Bastet started purring.

            Ray frowned and glanced at Duat in the rearview mirror. “Why are you two still here then? You’ve done your job.”

            Duat smiled and shrugged. “Bastet likes Ryan, she chooses to stay. She’s fascinated by you both,” he said, looking at Ray’s eyes in the mirror, “I was ordered to keep a close eye on you two.”

            Ray looked back at the road and snorted. “That’s not foreboding, or anything.”

            “Well, there’s an interesting future for the two of you,” Duat said, petting Bastet’s head again, “You won’t be home long before someone else is asking for you to search for another hidden treasure.”

            “Fucking great,” Ray snorted, smiling slightly when Ryan snored softly.

            Duat caught his eyes again in the mirror and they shared a smile before silence filled the car. Miles behind them, a massive sandstorm threatened to bury the entire city under sand. Once the last person was evacuated, the sand buried the entire area in a giant dune.


	10. Pancakes and Comic Books

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan owns a restaurant named Ryan’s and the antique store that used to share a wall with him moved into a bigger place so the door connecting the two stores has been closed. Then a young man buys the space for a comic book store.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Please leave a comment! I'd love to here what you thought!

Ryan had always liked small towns. He liked how he could leave his restaurant and apartment combo and walk to wherever he needed to go. He liked knowing everyone and inviting tourists into his restaurant, telling them everything and anything they wanted to know about the town.

            He loved the homey feel every person and place gave off with their constantly decorated street lights and large greenspaces. He loved the historical elements of a once thriving pioneer town that almost became the state capital reduced to a small town of about a thousand.

            The roads could probably be laid out better and a new face was always welcome, but that was nothing compared to how at home he felt. This little town he found his place in was a quaint with kind people and a fair share of weirdos that made each day as unexpected as the last.

            At the center of the town, according to quite a few people, was his little restaurant with a seventies theme and a long bar with a few antique machines and good food. When he first started the restaurant, he had a long complicated name that no one, including himself, could remember. Everyone called the place _Ryan’s_ anyway so, after a year, he changed the sign and hadn’t thought much more about what people called his restaurant.

            _Ryan’s_ was in the center of the town’s main drag sharing both walls with other store fronts. The entire front was glass with a white and red awning protecting the door and window from rain. Only a few tables sat in the front of the tiled restaurant along with the bar, desert case, and kitchen.

            After about three years, Ryan had the permission of the town to open the back of the building and extend his restaurant. Now he could seat enough people to keep up with the demand.

            Nearly everyone had breakfast at his little restaurant. Lunch and dinner was filled mainly with people passing through the town and regulars who just got off of work. In the ten years he had been open, the staff hadn’t really changed. Jack still ran the entire kitchen while Geoff made deserts and custom drinks, mainly soda despite Geoff’s love for alcohol. Ryan ran the rest, waiting on tables and stalking their shelves.

            He loved his little restaurant and the regulars who came in and ordered the same thing every day. He loved his friends who helped out and his small apartment directly above the restaurant.

            He loved the constant yet always changing feel of the town. Although, not everything lasted forever. The little antique shop that had shared a wall with him since he moved in had gotten so successful that they were going to move to a warehouse just outside of town so they could have more stalls and renters.

            Since Ryan had started his restaurant, the sweet little old lady that ran the shop stopped by for breakfast and lunch through the door that rested in the wall they shared. Just next to the bar was the door that was always open. Often times, people came to eat then wondered the antique shop or the other way around on occasion.

            “I’ll miss seeing you every day, Ryan honey,” Mrs. Hammond sighed as Ryan carried the last box of antiques into her small, baby blue Beetle’s back seat.

            “I’ll miss having you around as well,” Ryan chuckled, shutting the car door, “But I’m glad you were finally able to expand.”

            “Oh, me two,” Mrs. Hammond chuckled, shuffling over to the driver’s side, “And I’ll still be in for breakfast!”

            “I know, be careful,” Ryan said, waving as Mrs. Hammond pulled away from the front of the now empty shop.

            Sighing, Ryan turned around and frowned at the empty shop, dark next to his bright restaurant. Even Mrs. Hammond’s sign was taken down, leaving the unstained bricks to glow against their darker companions.

            Shaking his head, Ryan went into his restaurant and stood in front of the still open door. He blinked at the empty space before closing the door for the first time in ten years. The hinges creaked and the door protested the movement, some of the paint on the hinges chipped off and fluttered to the floor.

            The knob stuck when he tried to firmly close the door. He muscled the door closed and then stepped back with a small frown. He was going to miss that antique shop. He liked looking around between rushes and finding his favorite kid toys among the stacks of dusty antiques.

            “It’s not like she died,” Geoff snorted, leaning against the bar, “She’ll be here tomorrow devouring Jack’s god-like pancakes like she always does.”

            “Thank you!” Jack’s muffled voice came from the back, making them both chuckle.

            “I know, I just-she helped me move in, it’s weird not having her next door,” Ryan shrugged, turning away from the door and sliding onto one of the sparkling red stools.

            “You’ll get over it,” Jack said, coming out of the kitchen through the swinging metal door on the other side of the soda machine behind the bar. He held two plates in his hands with a third balanced on his forearm.

            “I heard someone was already looking in to moving in last night,” Geoff said, pulling out three forks, knives, and napkins from under the counter.

            “Already?” Ryan said, smiling when Jack set down the day’s first three plates of pancakes in front of them while Geoff handed out the silverware and napkins. Bananas, strawberries, and blueberries were mounded on top of Ryan’s diner plate sized pancake. Geoff’s was drowning in chocolate while Jack’s was plain with a giant pad of butter on top.

            “It’s a nice spot,” Geoff shrugged, placing the syrup and jams on the counter top as Jack pulled the smaller plates with toast on them from the window between the kitchen and bar, “It’s next to the best restaurant in town and the parking is free in front of this building.”

            “Did you hear who was going to move in?” Jack said as he handed Ryan his wheat toast, Geoff his white, and placed his own pumpernickel next to his plate.

            “I’ve heard a bunch of shit,” Geoff said, dumping syrup onto his pancake, “A boutique, a comic book store, a GameStop.” Geoff worked at an actual bar once _Ryan’s_ closed, learning all of the town’s gossip to relay to Ryan and Jack in the morning before the restaurant opened.

            “I’m down for a GameStop,” Ryan said, dumping more syrup onto his pancakes than Geoff had before passing the bottle to Jack who only drizzled his, “It’ll be nice to not drive for an hour to get to one.”

            “And that is why I order online,” Jack said, pressing his fork into the fluffy pancake.

            “Shit Jack,” Geoff moaned, his mouth full and his fork dripping chocolate and syrup onto his fingers, “These are extra good today.”

            Ryan nodded, his own mouth full and fork already cutting another piece. Jack blushed and grinned around his fork, beard getting a little sticky from what little syrup he used.

            “I don’t know how you can tell under all of that sugar,” Ryan said once he swallowed.

            Geoff frowned, pausing in his rapid devouring of the pancake. “Excuse you, are you running on three hours of sleep? No? Didn’t think so,” he huffed, devouring the pancake again.

            “That’s your fault,” Ryan snorted, shaking his head and taking another bite.

            “Like you’re one to talk, Ryan,” Jack said, smiling when Ryan shot him a look, “Do you see how much syrup is on your plate right now?”

            Ryan blushed and pouted. “It tastes good,” he mumbled, eating another piece.

            Jack and Geoff shared grins and laughed before returning to their own meals. Geoff continued updating them on the gossip of town. Once they finished and Jack had taken the plates into the back to clean, Ryan nibbled on his last piece of toast and opened their door to the public.

            Before long, a flood of regulars came in, some filling the bar while others claimed familiar tables. They were busy until an hour before the lunch rush.

            “Incoming,” Geoff said just as Ryan opened his mouth to take a bite of the cheeseburger Jack had made him half an hour ago but Ryan hadn’t been able to eat until then. Sighing, Ryan set the burger back down and grinned at the two men that walked into the restaurant.

            “Hey Ryan,” the short man with curly red hair and thin glasses said, giving Ryan as polite a smile as Ryan had ever seen on his face.

            “Hey Michael,” Ryan said, nodding to the man standing beside Michael, “Your usual table?”

            “Sure,” Michael said, following Ryan to the table next to the window. He waved away the menu Ryan offered him. “Just the usual.”

            Ryan nodded and turned toward the man. He had short black hair and a scruffy beard. Bright brown eyes looked between them behind thick rimmed glasses. “What would you like to drink?” he said, not even bothering with the pencil and paper in his half apron pocket. He would just write everything down later.

            “Oh uh, Sprite?” the man said, awkwardly looking down at the laminated menu.

            Ryan nodded and headed toward the bar. Geoff peered at Michael and the man as they started talking. “Who’s that?” he said already grabbing two plastic glasses from beside the soda machine. 

            “Don’t know but I think he might be someone looking into the building?” Ryan said, quickly scribbling Michael’s order on his pad and the man’s order underneath, “Michael did say his father was making him give tours of the building to prepare him.”

            “Michael’s already a better owner than his father,” Geoff snorted, reading Ryan’s messy scrawl upside down after setting Michael’s usual root beer float on the counter.

            Ryan snorted and stuffed the pad and pencil into his pocket. Once the Sprite was set on the counter, Ryan grabbed both drinks and came back over. “Ready to order?” he said as he set the drinks down.

            “You know what I want,” Michael shrugged, taking the straw Ryan pulled from his near bursting apron pocket of straws.

            Ryan nodded and looked at the man who smiled up at Ryan with a faint blush. “I’d like the special,” he said, jerking his thumb behind him at the chalkboard hanging on the wall next to the door.

            “Done,” Ryan smiled at the man, handing him a straw as well before taking his menu and giving Jack their completed ticket.

            Ryan and Geoff tried to ease drop on Michael and the man but couldn’t gather much. Ryan slowly ate his burger, watching the man talk with Michael. They seemed to have gone from serious business to video games if the brief mentions of Halo Ryan managed to hear said anything.

            “Hey, their food is up,” Geoff said, setting the plates on the counter next to Ryan, smirking at him, “Try not to stare at the new guy too much, no need to scare off a potential GameStop with your creepiness.”

            Ryan blushed and rolled his eyes. He quickly wiped his mouth the grabbed their plates. “Here you go,” he said as he sat the plates down in front of Michael and the man, “Enjoy, just wave me down if you need anything.”

            Both men nodded at him before talking again. Ryan could swear he felt eyes on his back, but when he looked over at the table again, the man and Michael were talking to each other again.

            Geoff rolled his eyes when Ryan sighed and finished his lunch. Before Michael and the man left, the lunch rushed picked up and Ryan just caught sight of them paying Geoff at the gold antique register next to the desert case before leaving.

            Geoff teased him about the man for the rest of the day, grinning when Ryan glared at him. Jack just shook his head at them with a fond smile.

            Michael came back to the restaurant with the same suit but a woman at his side the next day. They always sat in front of the window and talked about the empty store front. Geoff had managed to gather from Michael, when he was drunk at the pub, that he was showing people the empty front.

            “He said he liked the first guy the best though,” Geoff said one morning, little bits of his chocolate chip pancake flying from his mouth, “Said he was the most interested.”

            “Please, swallow,” Jack said, flicking some of the pre-chewed pancake from the counter, nose wrinkled.

            “Did you get his name?” Ryan said, frowning when Geoff grinned at him, “What?”

            “Just for you and your heart eyes, yes, I did get his name,” Geoff said before stuffing his face again.

            Jack rolled his eyes and focused on his pancake while Ryan narrowed his eyes at Geoff. “You want something,” he said when Geoff continued to just stuff his face to avoid speaking.

            Geoff swallowed his mouthful before shrugging. “I need to go to the nearest GameStop and my cars broken.”

            “I would drive you anyway,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes.

            “But you have to let me pick the radio station!” Geoff said, smirking when Ryan groaned.

            “You listen to nothing but old man radio,” Ryan grumbled, poking at the remains of his pancake.

            “So do you,” Geoff snorted, shooting Jack a glare when he started to laugh, “At least my radio is music, not just some old farts talking about shit to each other.”

            “It’s interesting,” Ryan huffed stabbing his last banana slice and piece of pancake before mopping up the syrup pooled on the plate.

            “It’s boring,” Geoff said before taking a large bite out of his toast. He opened his mouth but begrudgingly chewed and swallowed before speaking when Jack shot him a glare. “I chose the radio and I’ll tell you.”

            Ryan scowled at his toast slathered in butter and jam as Geoff triumphantly crossed his arms. Torture himself with the horrid sounds of banjos or learn the name of some man he might never meet again. “Fine,” he huffed, rolling his eyes when Geoff threw his arms up in victory.

            Jack chuckled and patted Ryan’s shoulder before grabbing the apple butter. “Good luck with that drive.”

            Ryan snorted and nibbled on his toast, glaring at Geoff as he devoured his toast. “Alright,” Geoff said after swallowing, “Kids name is Ray and he wants to put a comic book store in.”

            “That’s interesting,” Jack said as Ryan’s mind played the name Ray over and over again. The name suited him and his bright eyes and cute smiles. “Never seen one of those in town before.”

            “Yep, apparently the population of kids around here makes it a perfect location,” Geoff said, leaning against the counter, “He’d also be buying the apartment next to Ryan’s.”

            “What?” Ryan coughed, nearly choking on his last bite of toast.

            Jack frowned and patted Ryan’s back as Geoff smirked. “Yep, he’d be your neighbor too.”

            Ryan blinked at Geoff before taking a deep breath. “Shit,” he said after a moment, letting the breath go.

            Geoff and Jack shared smiles and laughed as Ryan blushed. “Get to work,” he mumbled, sliding from the stole.

            “You’ve got it, boss,” Geoff said, saluting Ryan as Jack carried their plates into the kitchen, still laughing.

            They didn’t find out anything more about Ray or who wanted the empty front for a month. That didn’t stop Ryan from wondering what Ray might be like. Occasionally the younger man would pop up in his thoughts only to disappear once patrons entered the restaurant.

            By the end of the month, he had almost completely forgotten until one morning when he unlocked the front door for Jack and Geoff and saw a large white truck in front of his doors. Blinking at the truck promoting a moving service on the side, he frowned and opened the door, peering over at the store front.

            The door was propped open with a brick. Boxes were littered on the side walk. Just as Ryan was about to go back into the restaurant and quickly finish getting ready for the day so he could help whoever was moving in, the young man from that day a month ago stepped out of the shop and stared right back at him.

            Ryan’s jaw dropped as they stared at each other for a moment before he quickly cleared his throat. “H-hello!” he said, smiling awkwardly and stepping out from the doorway, “Are you moving in?”

            “Oh, yeah,” Ray said with a sheepish smile, “Sorry about the truck.”

            “No, it’s fine!” Ryan said too quickly, making them both wince slightly. Swallowing his nerves, he stepped a bit forward and offered his hand. “I’m Ryan, I own the restaurant.”

            “I guess,” Ray chuckled, taking Ryan’s hand. He frowned when Ryan’s brow furrowed. “Its-its called _Ryan’s_?”

            “Oh! Yeah,” Ryan gasped, letting Ray’s hand go and smacking his palm against his forehead, “Duh, sorry. I forget sometimes because I still think of the original name even if I don’t remember it well.”

            Ray laughed and the tension in Ryan’s shoulder ebbed away as his hand dropped to his side. “Well, I’m Ray, I’m going to be running a comic book store,” Ray said, nodding to the front, “And living upstairs.”

            “Well, we’re double neighbors then,” Ryan shrugged, smiling at Ray. When Ray just frowned at him, eyebrow raised in confusion, his smile turned more into a grimace, eyes shifting awkwardly. “I-I live upstairs too,” he said after a moment.

            “Oh, that makes sense,” Ray snorted, smiling awkwardly at Ryan.

            Ryan nodded, coughing and staring hard at the ground. They were silent for a moment, awkwardly staring at the ground and walls around them. “Well, uh. This is awkward,” Ray puffed a laugh, smiling sheepishly at Ryan.

            “A little, sorry,” Ryan chuckled, stuffing his hands into his jean pockets, “I’m not great with people.”          

            Ray grinned and nodded, playing with the strings of his purple hoodie. “Neither am I, but I’ve always wanted to own a comic book store so.” He shrugged, tugging at the strings.

            “Well, I think a comic book store will do well here, there’s a bunch of kids around,” Ryan said, glancing at the shop and tensing, “Oh, I should-“

            “Oh yeah, no. Go. It was nice meeting you,” Ray said, smiling as Ryan grabbed the door handle then paused.

            “Uh, do you want any help? I don’t have much to do to set up and once that’s done I’m just waiting for my other employees,” Ryan rushed out, looking at Ray’s checkered vans.

            “Oh, well. If you want?” Ray said, stooping to pick up another box, “Don’t go out of your way just to help me.”

            “Nah, it’s fine, I don’t mind,” Ryan said, giving Ray a bright smile before rushing into the restaurant, missing Ray blush.

            Ryan quickly finished readying the shop for opening before standing in front of the door connecting the fronts. He took a couple deep breathes, forced an easy going smile on his face, then cracked the stubborn door open.

            “Holy-!” Ray gasped, nearly dropping the box in his hands when the side door swung open. Ryan frowned and rushed to take the box from Ray’s hands, cursing that the damn door was easier to open than to close.

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Ryan said, setting the box on a wobbling old wooden table set up in the back corner of the store.

            “No, it’s fine. I just,” Ray chuckled, holding his hands over his heart, “I honestly didn’t think that door opened.”

            “Oh, no, it does,” Ryan chuckled, walking over to the door, “I used to have it open all of the time when the antique store was here.”

            “I heard about that place,” Ray said, smiling up at Ryan, “Michael and I had to find that old lady to get the key from her, she had forgotten to turn it in.”

            “Of course she did,” Ryan snorted, shaking his head, “Her memory has always been bad. She was here when I first moved in.”

            “She mentioned that,” Ray nodded, heading for the door, “Said you had the best food in town.”

            “People keep telling us that,” Ryan said, trialing after Ray, “You’re welcome to come over any time.”

            “Thanks,” Ray said, stooping to pick up another box. He didn’t get the box an inch off of the ground before dropping it. “Damnit.”          

            Ryan chuckled and easily scooped up the box and the bigger one resting next to it. “Would you mind if we kept the side door open? It’s good business for both of us.”

            “Sure, I don’t mind,” Ray said, shaking his head at Ryan before grabbing a smaller box from the back of the van.

            Ryan nodded and set the box down on the back table, looking around the store. The lightbulbs had been removed from the lights when Mrs. Hammond had moved out. “What are your plans?”

            “Oh, well. Lights first, then racks on the wall and standalone ones everywhere,” Ray said, setting the box down with a huff. He panted as he walked over to the side door. “I was thinking of putting the register here along with a few glass cases of rare comics and toys.”

            Ryan nodded and looked over the space. “You’ll have plenty of room for that,” he said, following Ray back out of the store, “When do you think you’ll be open?”

            “Depends on when the glass cases get here,” Ray sighed, climbing into the back of the truck and pushing boxes over to Ryan.

            Ryan nodded and took the first box Ray pushed over to him. He turned and jumped when he found Jack and Geoff giving him identical looks at the door of the restaurant. He shot them glares then grinned.

            “Geoff! Jack! Good timing!” Ryan said, walking over and dumping the box into Geoff’s arms. “Geoff, you can help us unload Ray’s truck. Jack, make breakfast for four.”

            “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Ray said, frowning as he stood leaning against the side of the truck.

            “It’s no problem,” Jack said, smirking when Geoff whined but begrudgingly waddled into the store.

            “We have the best breakfast in town, after all,” Ryan nodded, smiling at Ray. Blushing lightly, Ray smiled and nodded back.

            Jack rolled his eyes at them before going into _Ryan’s_ and disappearing into the kitchen. When Jack called them into the restaurant, Ray hesitantly followed Geoff and Ryan through the side door.

            As Geoff glared as the crooked grin Ryan was giving him, Ray sat beside Ryan, smiling at Jack when he came out with four plates. “One strawberry banana pancake with whipped cream,” Jack said, setting Ray’s plate down in front of him before setting the three usual’s down.

            Geoff rounded the bar and got out the condiments and the silverware, digging into his pancake before the toast even hit the counter. Ray smiled sheepishly at Ryan when he passed him the syrup once he wrestled the bottle from Geoff’s sticky fingers.

            He poured a descent amount of syrup on before passing the bottle to Ryan. He grinned when Ryan dumped his usual amount on his pancake before passing the bottle to Jack. He looked down at the fluffy pancake which was bigger than any pancake he had ever seen before. Strawberries and bananas were cooked into the batter along with a mound of the fruit on top with a whip cream peak toping everything off.

            He didn’t notice Jack and Ryan slowly eating, watching as he cut a piece and took a bite. Ray’s eyes went wide, fork still hanging from his lips as he chewed and looked up at Jack and Ryan. “This is the best pancake I have ever had,” Ray said, looking like he was about to cry,

            Jack laughed as Ryan squeezed Ray’s shoulders. “I’m glad you like it,” Jack said as Ray dug into the pancake.

            “You’re welcome to join us every morning if you want,” Ryan said, laughing when Ray looked up at him with utter joy.

            “Really?” Ray said, looking down at his pancake when Ryan nodded, “Thank you so much.”

            Ryan and Jack shared smiles as Ray dug into his pancake. Geoff shook his head, plate already empty and toast in hand. “You act like you’ve never had real food in your life,” he said before crunching on the toast.

            “I uh, spent all my money getting this place and the apartment,” Ray said after swallowing, whip cream smeared on his chin, “So I haven’t really been eating much the past few days.”

            “Well that can’t do,” Ryan said, tapping his own chin when Ray looked at him, “You can eat here without paying.”

            “What? But-!” Ray said, frowning against his napkin as he wiped at his chin.

            “It’s fine,” Ryan said, shaking his head, “I’d rather feed you then get paid.”

            Jack and Geoff nodded solemnly, Jack with his fork in his mouth while Geoff’s toast dangled from his lips. Ray looked between the three of them before smiling. “Thank you,” he said, eating more of his pancake.

            The gents all shared smiles and Geoff filled the momentary silence with the town gossip. Jack and Ryan filled in the gaps in Ray’s information about specific people. “Thanks, for the help and breakfast,” Ray said once they were done, standing between the shops.

            “No problem, just call if you need any more help,” Ryan said, turning the closed sign hanging on the front door to open.

            Ray nodded and disappeared into his shop. Throughout the day, Ryan would glance in and watch Ray for a few moments before continuing work. Between rushes he would ignore the knowing smiles Jack and Geoff shot his way when he would go into the store and help Ray just for a little bit before dragging him back into _Ryan’s_ for food.

            When the restaurant was finally cleaned up and closed for the night, Geoff off the pub while Jack went home to his wife, Ryan poked his head into Ray’s store and smiled when he found the younger man sitting on the floor with piles of pipes around him. He was holding the instructions to make the rack, frowning at the pieces around him before looking back at the paper.

            “Need some help?” Ryan said, walking into the shop. One rack was already built, but four other boxes still needed to be opened.

            “Please?” Ray said, looking up at Ryan with a sheepish smile, “I suck at this.”

            Ryan chuckled and sat down beside Ray, taking the instructions and studying the pieces. Before too long, they had all six racks built and pushed up against the walls until they were ready to be used.

            “The wall racks will be coming in tomorrow,” Ray said as he and Ryan walked to the back of the building. A small hallway connected to both the restaurant and the shop led to a thin hallway with one stair well to the apartments. There was a small landing at the top with a window and the doors to the apartments on either side.

            Ryan nodded and held the hallway door open for Ray. “How many of those are you building?”  
            “So fucking many,” Ray sighed, slipping through the door and heading for the stairs, “Thanks for your help.”

            “It’s no problem,” Ryan said, smiling at Ray as they walked up the stairs, “Have you unpacked in your apartment yet?”

            “Not really, the important things are done, but that’s all I managed to do,” Ray sighed, stopping on the landing, standing in front of his door, “Well, uh. Good night.”

            Ryan pressed his lips together then nodded. “Good night, see you tomorrow.”

            Ray smiled and waved to Ryan as he slipped into his apartment. Ryan waved back, waiting until Ray’s door closed before opening door and going into his apartment. He leaned back against his door and smiled like an idiot.

            In the morning, Ryan came out of his apartment to Ray nearly stumbling out of his. Ray blinked sleepily at Ryan before grinning. “Morning,” Ryan said, waving for Ray to go down first, “Not a morning person?”

            “Never,” Ray rasped, slowly going down the stairs, “You’re way to fucking chipper, man.”  
            Ryan snorted and shook his head, herding Ray into _Ryan’s_ before he could even think of going into his store. Ray collapsed in the stool he sat in yesterday. Ryan smiled as he fell asleep using his arms as pillows.

            Ray sat up a bit when Geoff and Jack came in. “You okay?” Jack said with an amused smile.

            “It’s fucking early,” Ray sighed, smooshing his cheek against his arms again.

            “Tell me about it,” Geoff mumbled, dropping into the stool next to Ray. Ryan and Jack shook their heads as Ray and Geoff leaned up against each other, falling asleep instantly.

            Ryan finished getting the restaurant ready for the day while Jack warmed up the kitchen and cooked their breakfast. Ryan woke them up after pulling the silverware and condiments out.

            Geoff rounded the bar and told them what he had learned the night before as they ate. Ray slipped from the restaurant when _Ryan’s_ officially opened after they had finished eating. He gave them a sheepish smile and wave before unpacking more boxes.

            Just after lunch, Ray’s wall racks came in and between the lunch and dinner rush, Ryan helped Ray build the racks. Before the restaurant closed and after the rush finally died down, Ray finished the last rack and sat at the bar, testing new milkshakes, malts, floats, smoothies, and sodas Geoff made on the fly and could never get Ryan or Jack to try.

            “Woah,” Ray’s nose scrunched up as he shook his head, pushing the glass full of a sickly green shake away from him.

            “Too sour?” Geoff said, frowning at the glass.

            Ray nodded quickly, snatching up the water Ryan set beside him. “What’s in that?” he said after chugging the water.

            “Mainly just Kiwis and apples,” Geoff sighed, dumping the sludge into the sink.

            “Too much,” Ray said, shaking his head. He set the water glass down, letting Ryan refill the glass. “Alright, next one.”

            “How can you stand doing this?” Jack said, leaning against the order-up window, “That was the fifth bad one in a row.”

            “Eh, sometimes they’re really good,” Ray said with a shrug.

            “Living for the thrill,” Ryan snorted, rounding the counter to sit beside Ray.

            “At least he’s willing to test for me,” Geoff huffed before running the milkshake machine to better ignore Ryan’s and Jack’s sighs and eye rolls.

            Ray laughed and grinned at Ryan. Jack stuck his tongue out and wrinkled his nose when Ryan smiled back and they were caught in each other’s eyes. Geoff gave him a questioning look, groaning when Jack nodded at the two.

            “You’re both disgusting,” Geoff said, slamming the metal cup he used to mix the ice cream. Ray and Ryan jumped and looked away from each other with bright flushes. Geoff and Jack shared fondly annoyed smiles.

            When Jack and Geoff left and Ray had finished helping Ryan clean up the restaurant, they trudged upstairs and bid each other good night. On the other side of two closed doors, they both leaned against the door and smiled like idiots.

            Even when Ray’s shop officially opened, kids packing into the place to buy comics, toys, and graphic shirts, Ray still found time to relax at _Ryan’s_ despite his customers packing into the restaurant for cheap, good food.

            Ray’s shop closed before _Ryan’s_ so he would sit at the bar and test Geoff’s drinks then help Ryan clean up the restaurant. Although he was making significantly more money, he still ate all of his meals beside the gents for weeks.

            “You haven’t named the place yet,” Geoff said to Ray as he downed the berry smoothie Geoff had made, “Still thinking about it?”

            “Actually, I ordered the sign the other day,” Ray said, smiling sheepishly at Geoff.

            “Alright, spill kid,” Geoff grinned, leaning over the bar and tilting his ear towards Ray. Later in the night, when the restaurant was nearly completely empty, Geoff would randomly giggle harder and harder the more Ray blushed at him. He refused to tell Ryan and Jack why he was laughing.

            “Just wait until tomorrow,” Geoff told them between laughs, “Its gold.”

            Ryan and Jack shared looks, especially when Ray hid his face in his hands, even the tips of his ears were red. Jack shrugged and Ryan squeezed Ray’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.

            The next morning, about an hour after _Ryan’s_ opened, a truck pulled up to the fronts with a covered sign strapped to the flat bed. Ray rushed out and spoke with the driver. Geoff snickered as Ryan watched from the window for a few minutes before continuing to work.

            The truck was there for a good amount of the day, a ladder blocking Ray’s door. Ray stayed in _Ryan’s,_ helping out where he could. Ryan happily fed the truck driver at lunch and dinner. When the truck finally left, _Ryan’s_ was about to close.

            Just as Ryan flipped the sign, Ray burst from the stool he was sitting on and dragged Ryan out onto the sidewalk. Ray bounced from foot to foot beside Ryan as he looked up at the sign hanging over Ray’s shop.

            _Ray’s Comic Book Shop_ was neatly printed on the sign in red cursive. Ryan slowly smiled as he looked over the sign. Ray’s name was larger with _Comic Book Shop_ smaller underneath. The Y in Ray’s curved around under his name to underline the other two letters.

            “Perfect,” Ryan nodded, smiling down at Ray.

            Ray looked up at Ryan with bright eyes and an ecstatic smile. Geoff and Jack shook their heads from inside _Ryan’s._ Geoff had eventually caved and told Jack what was going on.

            When Jack and Geoff left and both shops were closed and locked up, Ray and Ryan lingered in the small hallway separating their apartments. “So, you really like the sign?” Ray said, pulling at his hoodie strings.

            “I think it’s great,” Ryan said, watching Ray’s fingers and smiling. Ray smiled at him, tugging at the fray ends of the string. Ryan puffed a laugh, running his fingers through his hair. “I-Ray?”

            “Yeah?” Ray said, looking up at Ryan, “What’s up?”

            Ryan bit his lip and took a hesitant step forward. “Can I, uh. You’re really cute and um. I-“ he took a deep breath, smiling as Ray laughed at him, “Would it be weird if I asked you on a date?”

            Ray rapidly shook his head, eyes trailing from Ryan’s to his lips. “Would it be weird if I asked for a kiss before that date we should totally have tomorrow?”

            Ryan laughed and reached out and placed his hands on Ray’s hips. Ray’s hands went up from his hoodie to Ryan’s neck then hair. Their foreheads lightly tapped as they grinned at each other.

            Ray gently tugged on the strands of hair on the back of Ryan’s neck and they both tilted their heads. The kiss was gentle and sweet. Ryan’s arms wrapped around Ray’s waist as Ray’s thin fingers threaded through his hair.

            They parted with soft sighs and love sick smiles. “Definitely couldn’t have waited,” Ray said, laughing when Ryan kissed his cheek.

            “So, about that date,” Ryan said, leaning back to mesmerize Ray’s bright smile and soft blush, “I’ll make us diner and then we can finally play video games together?”

            “Deal,” Ray said, leaning up and pulling Ryan into another kiss.

            “See you tomorrow?” Ryan breathed when they parted.

            “Yep,” Ray said with a nod despite the fact that neither of them let go or moved to part.

            Eventually they did whisper good nights and slid into their apartments, watching each other for as long as they could. In the morning, they were gross according to Geoff and Jack who constantly teased them for their heart eyes and longing sighs.

            That night, they took joy in eating together and cuddling up on the couch for Ray to destroy Ryan at every game they played. When they eventually fell asleep on Ryan’s couch, holding each other tightly, they wondered how they could have waited for so long.


	11. Aliens?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan finds a crashed alien spaceship that holds Ray, an adorable,cuddly alien that is very curious about everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please a comment!

            The moment Ryan saw what he thought was a shooting star crash into the Earth, he knew he should have never moved to the country. He had grown tired of life in the city and thought that, just maybe, like in Stardew Valley, moving to the country side and starting a farm would be good for him.

            Now he felt like he was Superman’s parents, about to find an alien baby in a crashed ship. He was fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of finding an alien child. He doubted his ability to raise human children.

            On the other hand, if that really was a meteoroid, that would be fucking amazing. Space had always fascinated him and if whatever crashed into his fields was a small piece of space, he would be extremely happy and not to mention rich. He could sell parts to museums and labs.

            Armed with only a flashlight and the keys to his rusting pickup truck threaded through his fingers, he slowly slipped through the dark field toward the crater that was closer to the road than he realized.

            He stood at the edge of the crater, frowning down at the deep indent. “That’s going to be a bitch to fix,” he mumbled, kicking some of the loose soil and barely sprouted wheat down into the hole.

            Shaking his head, he shined his light towards the center where smoke still billowed from whatever had crashed. He squinted as his flashlight brightened the dark gray smoke. He could see a large lump but not any details.

            Frowning, he carefully slid down into the hole, nearly tripping and landing face first at the bottom. Catching his feet, he squinted at the smoking mass again, his flashlight bouncing off of the slowly thinning smoke.

            Edging forward, he tried to make out what exactly had crash landed in his field. Waving away the smoke when he was close enough, he saw flashes of a smooth, black, metallic ball. He winced when the light bounced off of the ball and into his eyes, squinting at the seamless ball.

            He walked around the ball, placing his keys in his pocket, as the smoke cleared except for a few small wisps still rising from the surface. He had never heard of a meteoroid being perfectly round and smooth before, the again, there were many things they didn’t know about space. Regardless, he was also fairly certain that something six feet in diameter would leave a bigger impact.

            Huffing, he stopped where he started, frowning down at the ball. “What the fuck do I do with this?” he muttered, dropping the flashlight in the dirt and placing his hands on his hips. The light casted a massive shadow of the ball against the steep slope of the crater.

            Pursing his lips, he considered his options. He surely wasn’t going to leave the ball there. He found the damned thing and he needed to repair the massive hole in his field. The question was, how was he going to move something that was probably more than ten times his own weight?

            His truck wasn’t going to be able to drag the ball out, especially if that was solid metal. He’s rip out the bumper if the engine didn’t give up first. He definitely wasn’t going to be able to move the ball himself, he was strong but not that strong. Not to mention, the surface was probably still boiling hot and the crater had very steep slopes.

            Frowning, Ryan reached out and held his hand over the ball. His eyebrows raised when he found no heat pouring off of the ball and warm his hands against the chill of the night. “Alright,” he huffed, hesitantly tapping the ball with a finger. He tapped the ball a few times, eventually resting his hand against the cool metal.

            “Alright,” he said again, frowning at the smoke rising up between his fingers. Removing his hand, he looked at his palm, tilting his wrist in the light. His skin was perfectly fine, no burns or scrapes he for some reason couldn’t feel.

            Running his fingers through his hair, he slowly circled the ball again, stopping across from where he stood before. Taking a deep breath, he placed both hands on the ball and pushed, boots sliding in the burnt soil. The ball didn’t budge as Ryan nearly ran in place trying to gain traction.

            His foot eventually slipped, sending him to his knees and nearly slamming his head into the ball. Leaning away from the smooth metal, Ryan frowned at his faint reflecting. “Shit,” he sighed, pushing himself up onto his feet.

            After struggling to climb out of the crater, he got the rope he always had in his truck and tried to tie the bright white rope around the ball. No matter what he tried or how tight he pulled the rope, it slipped off and fell to the ground.

            Sighing through his nose, he ran his hands over the ball, searching for anything he could latch the rope too. “It’s fucking perfect,” he grumbled, sitting next to his flashlight, rope in his lap and glaring at the ball.

            He stared at the ball for a long moment, trying to figure something out. Wondering if he could just lift the damn thing, he reached over and rapped a knuckle against the ball. He leaned back when he heard a sound similar to the hollow hull of a ship or plane.

            Leaning forward again, he knocked a few more times, finding a few spots that seemed solid. “What the hell is this thing?” he mumbled, wishing for a moment that this thing held a baby Superman because then he would at least know what to do.

            When knocking all along the entire ball didn’t do anything, Ryan laid on the ground and glared at the stars. The back of his eyes started to itch as he felt the bags under his eyes get heavier. Pulling out his phone, he scowled at the time before dropping the device on his chest.

            “It’s too late for this,” he said, still scowling at the sky, “And this is your fault.”

            A few stars blinked at him in response making him roll his eyes. Sometimes he wished he had learned Morse code, then at least looking at blinking stars might be more amusing than mental crisis inducing.

            Just as he was about to get up and trudge home to deal with this in the morning, phone slipped in his pocket, a sharp hissing filled the air, making him jump and sit up. He watched as seams he knew weren’t there before, turned white on the ball. He scrambled to his feet as a puff of air and the hiss of machines continued as the white lines grew thicker.

            The top of the ball slowly rolled back, showing off the pure white insides of something out of a Star Trek film. Panels of controls surrounded the inside of the ball, glowing buttons and monitors littered the surface.

            At the center was a floating white chair with a young man curled into a ball. The man wore an all-white jump suit that stopped at his jaw and hands. The suit seemed as seamless as the ball had been. His hair was so black that the light around the man seemed to be sucked into his hair. His eyes were a swirl of brown and yellow, squinting at Ryan. His skin was tan and smooth. Thick white rimmed glasses were balanced on his nose, bright against his black hair.

            “Fuck,” Ryan mumbled after a moment. The man flinched and tried to become one with the chair, eyes never leaving Ryan’s even as his pupils slowly dilated.

            Ryan winced and slowly up his hands up. “It’s okay,” he said slowly, frowning when the man’s brow furrowed, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

            The man studied Ryan for a moment before squeaking something to him in a series of clicks. Ryan frowned and shook his head. “What?” he said, keeping his hands where the man could see them. He hoped the man wasn’t going to set his phasors to kill of anything, that would suck.

            The man frowned and tilted his head, slowly sitting up more. He was still curled in on himself, but Ryan could now see three varying shades of gray circles interlocked on his chest like an insignia. The man spoke again, but this time he sounded like he was speaking a language, but one Ryan had never heard before.

            “I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” Ryan said, shaking his head, “English? French? I mean, I don’t know either very well, but I can understand them?”

            The man looked more confused then, studying Ryan. He opened his mouth then closed it again. Ryan flinched when he started to move, making the man pause. Looking between Ryan’s raised hands, the man raised his hand and slowly stepped out of the ball.

            “I’m too tired for this,” Ryan mumbled, stumbling back as the man stepped toward him. He was a head shorter than Ryan and thin. The jump suit fit him perfectly, showing off lean muscle as he continued to take slow steps toward Ryan. He was still squinting and Ryan wondered if those glasses were helping him see at all.

            Ryan moved back as far as he could before he nearly tripped on the slopping walls of the crater. He leaned back as the man leaned toward him, yelping when the man suddenly grabbed his cheeks and pressed their lips together.

            The man’s eyes were closed while Ryan’s were wide. He was frozen to the spot not moving even as the man leaned back. “Can you understand me now?” the man said, his voice smooth and a little deeper than Ryan expected.

            Ryan opened his mouth then snapped his teeth together again. “What the hell?” he croaked after a moment, trying to stumble back from the man and ending up on his ass, “You just, why did you. What the fuck?!”

            The man winced as Ryan held his head before his hands, pulling a short, blond strands. “I was simply learning your language,” the man said slowly, stumbling away from Ryan, “That’s how you learn, no?”

            “No!” Ryan gasped, letting his hands fall into his lap, “You, not by-“ he sighed and rubbed his face, “What the fuck is going on?”

            The man frowned, watching Ryan pinch the bridge of his nose for a moment. “I crashed?”

            “I got that,” Ryan snapped, wincing when the man flinched away, “Shit, I-sorry.”

            “It is, alright?” the man said, moving back again. The back of his knees hit the lip of the ball and he tumbled back into his ship, legs hooked on the edge.

            Ryan blinked as the man groaned, struggling to get up. He coughed on a laugh, slowly standing and slowly walking over. The man was stuck under the chair, awkwardly trying to free his legs.

            “Are you alright?” Ryan said, offering his hand.

            The man smiled sheepishly up at Ryan, taking his hand and letting him pull him back onto his feet. “I am, thank you.”

            Ryan nodded and stepped back, watching the man brush himself off. “Who are you?”

            “My name is, would be hard for you to pronounce,” the man said after a moment of just staring at Ryan with a furrowed brow, “You do not have the vocal capabilities to speak it.”

            “Oh,” Ryan said, frowning at the man, “Well, I’ve got to call you something.”

            The man nodded and tapped his chin in thought for a moment, eyes glazed over. He smiled when he focused on Ryan again. “The equivalent of my name in your language would be Ray.”

            “Alright, Ray,” Ryan said smiling a bit as Ray grinned at him before turning toward his ship, “Why did you crash here?”

            Ray’s shoulders bunched up near his ears and he glanced back at Ryan. “I- did not intend to, but I suppose planet sixty nine is better than anywhere else,” he said, turning back to his ship and poking at a few of the buttons.

            Ryan blinked at Ray’s back for a moment. “Planet, sixty nine?” he said slowly, biting his lip to keep from cackling like an idiot. God he had been alone for way too fucking long.

            “Yes, that is this planet, yes?” Ray said, pulling a small device from one of the control panels.

            “Well, we call it Earth, I didn’t know we were numbered,” Ryan said after ignoring the all too good numbering of the planet. Sixty nine certainly summed everything up.

            “Earth? What a strange name,” Ray said, turning back toward Ryan, but fiddling with the device in his hand. He held the long, white device close to his face a she squinted at the screen. “The numbering is ranked from most important to least, your number is fairly low so I’m not surprised you don’t know about it.”

            Of course Earth was that low on the scale. Whatever made the galactic code probably got that stupid ass probe spitting out Earth’s location in different languages and laughed. “Where do you come from? Although, I probably won’t be able to understand,” Ryan said, frowning as the device started to beep.

            Ray gave a series of clicks before speaking English again. “-is the planet I’m from. Planet four thousand, two hundred and forty nine in the galactic code,” he said, watching the device.

            Ryan’s brow furrowed and he held his mouth open, trying to figure out how Ray even made those noises before shaking his head. “Okay,” he said instead, “Why aren’t you there?”

            Ray’s shoulders jumped again, the device creaking under his grip. “I was, banished,” Ray said slowly, staring hard at the small screen.

            “Banished?” Ryan said, frowning as Ray looked up at him nearly in tears.

            “I-was blamed for a crime I did not commit. My planet’s legal system has been corrupt for-“ Ray paused, scowling as he waved his hand in the air, searching for the right translation, “Your years are not long enough.”

            “It’s been shit for a long time, got it,” Ryan said with a nod.

            Ray nodded back, frowning back down at the device. “Yes, and, well. When someone is within enough power and commits high treason, someone else is blamed. Thankfully, we do not believe in killing for punishment.”

            “So, some high muckity muck committed treason, blamed you, and you were unfairly placed in a ship and shot into space?” Ryan said, frowning when Ray nodded, “Well that’s fucked up.”

            Ray laughed lightly just as the device gave a long, low beep. “Ah, good,” he said with a sigh, reaching up and pressing at the collar of his jump suit.

            Ryan jumped when a thin bubble appeared around Ray’s head before popping. “What the fuck was that?” he said, watching Ray toss the device onto the chair in his ship.

            “A, uh, space helmet?” Ray said slowly, lips curling awkwardly, “It was protecting me from your planet, but it seems the environment here is very similar to the one of my former home.”

            “Oh, well that’s good,” Ryan said, slowly relaxing, “Are you-do you want to stay here?”

            Ray opened his mouth then closed his jaw again, frowning at Ryan. “Perhaps? I’ve been in space for some time and they didn’t exactly give me food. I had to override the pod’s auto-piolet to even get here.”

            “What-that, alright,” Ryan sighed, rubbing his eyes, “How about, you stay with me and we’ll talk more in the morning when I’m less likely to just pass out?”

            “Pass out? Why would you do that? Are you ill?” Ray said, stepping closer to Ryan with a worried frown.

            Ryan blinked at Ray and chuckled lightly. “No, I’m fine, sorry. I’m just tired.”

            “Ah,” Ray said, relaxing a bit, “Are-are you sure you want to open your home to me? I am a criminal.”

            “A wrongly accused one,” Ryan said, stooping to grab his rope and flash light, “And you seem nice enough. We’ll take care of your ship and shit in the morning.”

            Ray smiled brightly at Ryan, following at his heels up the slope and into his truck. “This is very bumpy,” Ray said, holding onto the truck’s door, turning a bit green, “It does not float?”

            “Nope, afraid not,” Ryan chuckled, seeing the faint outline of his house in the distance, “Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”

            Ray nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. He wobbled out of Ryan’s car when they finally stopped, blinking up at the house. “It looks like my home,” he said softly, frowning at the old wooden house.

            “Does it?” Ryan said, offering Ray his arm when he continued to wobble where he stood.

            “Yes, but, not made out of metal,” Ray said, smiling thankfully at Ryan as he leaned against his arm.

            “Nah, it’s made out of wood. I guess metal is common on your planet?” Ryan said, leading Ray toward the house.

            “More common than wood, yes. The planets density is so high that it squeezes metal through the crust,” Ray said, looking at the house in awe, “I’ve never seen so much wood.”

            Ryan snorted and opened his door. “Be prepared then, a lot of things on this planet are made from wood.”

            Ray looked up at Ryan with wide, amazed eyes before looking around the house in complete and utter awe while squinting. Ryan chuckled and led him to his guest room. Ray sat on the bed and marveled at the bedding and mattress.

            “This is much harder than what I’m used to,” Ray said, pressing his hand against the bed and watching the mattress rise back up when he moved his hand.

            “That’s the softest mattress I have, I’m afraid,” Ryan said, leaning against the door frame, “Just, try to get some sleep. I have a shit ton of questions for you in the morning.”      

            “Of course,” Ray said with a curt nod, “Thank you, uh.”

            Ryan frowned as Ray gave him a confused look. “Ryan,” he said after a moment, “Sorry, didn’t realize I didn’t tell you.”

            Ray smiled brightly and nodded. “Ryan,” he said watching Ryan push off the door frame and shuffle down the hall.

            Ryan woke with the sun like he normally did. He was exhausted and decided the giant crater in his fields was good enough cause to sleep in just for a little bit, but, of course, his brain was too loud for sleep.

            Grumbling, he forced himself out of bed and into the kitchen. A cup of black coffee later, he was awake enough to at least make breakfast for two. When he finished, he set a plate of pancakes on the kitchen table next to the syrup, jams, and butter.

            Glancing over the table, he was more or less happy with everything and shuffled upstairs. He cracked the guest room door open and smiled slightly when he found Ray still in his jump suit and sprawled out over the bed.

            Careful not to step on creaking boards, he edged over to the bed and shook Ray’s shoulders gently. He gasped when Ray’s eyes snapped open, entirely white, frozen as Ray’s hands began to glow the same color, a fist flying towards his face.

            His eyes crossed as he looked down at Ray’s hand that stopped inches from his face, still glowing and feeling extremely hot. Ray blinked a few times, his eyes returning to normal and the glow around his hand disappearing. “Ryan?” he slurred, squinting at Ryan.

            Ryan let out the breath he had been holding, stumbling away from the bed. Ray watching him for a moment before their eyes met. Ray’s eyes widened and he scrambled to stand from the bed, freeze when Ryan scurried further away from him.

            They stared at each other for a long moment, Ray breathing hard, eyes wide and worried. Ryan was shaking slightly, hand patting the air to hold onto something. His fingers eventually brushed the door frame and he hung on, heart betting hard in his chest.

            “I am so sorry,” Ray breathed after a moment, “I-I didn’t know-“

            “It’s alright,” Ryan cut him off, voice trembling slightly, “I should have figured. It’s okay.” He smiled, breathing in deeply through his nose. “Sides, you didn’t even hit me.”

            Ray frowned and nodded, slowly getting out of the bed. He relaxed when Ryan didn’t shy away the closer he got. “Still, I am sorry,” he said, pulling at the sleeves of his suit.

            Ryan smiled and nodded, taking a hesitant step into the hallway. “I’ll just be more careful waking you up,” he said, heading toward the stairs, “Come on, I made breakfast.”

            Ray silently padded after Ryan, head bowed and fingers pulling at his sleeves. Ryan glanced back at him and slowly relaxed. He wasn’t afraid of Ray any more than he already was, which wasn’t much. He meant no harm, just jumpy. He would be too if he was banned from his entire planet and ended up sleeping in a strange place.

            Ray hesitantly sat at Ryan’s table, eyeing the pancakes. “What are these?” he said, picking up his fork with a jerk and poking a pancake.

            “Pancakes?” Ryan said, smiling amused as he sat across from Ray, “They’re good, I swear.”

            “They look like-“ Ray scowled, tapping the fork against the plate, “Uh.”

            “Something from your planet you like, I hope?” Ryan said, stabbing two pancakes and dragging them onto his plate.

            “Er, fluffy cake like things?” Ray said, watching Ryan drizzle syrup onto his pancakes, “With a sweet liquid?”

            “They’re basically the same,” Ryan nodded, snorting when Ray happily put four pancakes on his plate. Once he had the syrup in hand, he studied the bottle for a moment before creating an ocean of syrup on his plate.

            Ryan shook his head and watched Ray study his fork and knife. “At least these look the same,” Ray said, smiling at Ryan before digging in.

            Ryan smiled back, watching Ray stuff his face. Once Ray finished his four pancakes, overjoyed that they tasted more or less like what he remembered from home, he eyed the remaining two before looking at Ryan.

            “Go ahead,” Ryan said, finishing his first pancake, “How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”

            “Not too long by this planets standards,” Ray said, pulling the remaining pancakes onto his plate before eyeing the jars of homemade jams, “My metabolism is much higher though.”

            “Makes sense,” Ryan said smiling when Ray hesitantly took one of the jars, jerkily picking up the jar, and cracked the lid open, “As much as anything does at this point anyway.”

            “What is this?” Ray said, smelling the strawberry jam.

            “It’s jam,” Ryan said, blinked back at Ray when he just stared at him, “It’s made with crushed preserved fruit?”

            “Fruit?” Ray said, tilting his head as he dumped enough jam on the pancakes to make Ryan’s teeth hurt and tongue tingle.

            Ryan chuckled as Ray tasted the jam, eyes lighting up. “They’re, uh. They’re edible plants that,” Ryan said, scrunching his nose as he searched for his words, “They contain a lot of water and seeds? Uh.”

            “They’re plants?” Ray said around a mouthful of jam and pancake, “I don’t much about purely organic plants or how you managed to make these not to taste like metal.”

            Ryan blinked at Ray blankly for a moment. “I’m sorry?”

            Ray paused and licked the jam from his lips. “Everything at home is made of metal,” he said slowly, looking down at his plate, “Food, things that could be considered plants, everything minus the animals and people.”

            Ryan frowned, poking at his remaining half pancake. “I don’t think your metabolism is fast, it’s just stronger,” he said after a moment, “If you literally eat metal, you’re going to have deficiency problems here.”

            Ray frowned and tapped his fork against the plate again. “How much metal do you consume?”

            “Humans need iron and I don’t know about anything else,” Ryan said, eyes rolling up as he tried in vain to remember his biology classes in high school and college, “And we don’t need much.”

            “I could probably substitute by eating raw metals,” Ray said eyeing his fork, “I had to do that at home as well.”

            “Please don’t eat my silverware,” Ryan chuckled, reaching over and plucking the fork from his fingers, “We can figure something out.”

            Ray smiled sheepishly at Ryan and nodded. “Right, of course,” he said softly, watching Ryan eat the rest of his pancake, “You said we?”

            “Hum?” Ryan said around his fork and last bite.

            “You said we could figure something out,” Ray said slowly, eyes big and soft as he looked at Ryan, “You want to keep helping me?”

            Ryan swallowed hard and smiled awkwardly at Ray. That look was probably going to get him into a lot of trouble one day. “Of course, I can’t just leave you to your own devices on a strange planet.”

            Ray’s eyes brightened and he jumped from his seat, rushing around the table to tackle Ryan in a hug. Ryan yelped, failing to grab the table as the chair tilted back. He clenched his jaw as they fell, Ray snuggling into his shoulder and weighing more than he looked.

            With a sigh and tired smile, Ryan tiled his head back against the tiled floor. “Alright,” he mumbled, closing his eyes, “You’re welcome.”

            Ray trailed after Ryan throughout the day once he was dressed in some of Ryan’s shrunken clothes. Still dwarfed by the shirt and needing a belt, Ray ran his fingers over the flannel shirt, amazed that the fabric wasn’t nearly as soft as his jump suit yet somehow more comfortable.

            He watched Ryan care for his one cow and army of chickens, tend to his small garden, marveling at the fruit he had growing there. He frowned when Ryan cursed at his tractor which refused to start. He smiled when Ryan kicked the engine and cheered when it roared to life. They talked as Ryan went about his day, asking questions about each other’s worlds.

            Ryan gave up the tractor seat to Ray as he drove through his field, going around the crater. “We’re going to have to do something about that,” Ryan said as they drove past.

            Ray nodded, frowning down at his ship shining in the sun. “I’m sorry about your field.”

            “It’s alright,” Ryan shrugged, driving over the road to get to the rest of Ryan’s property, “It’s not like you had much of a choice.”

            Once the tractor was back in the barn, Ray hesitantly got into Ryan’s truck, clinging to the handle every time they went over a bump. Ryan shook his head and squeezed Ray’s shoulder when they got out.

            “Alright, so, can you fly it out?” Ryan said, looking down at the ship that still sat open.

            “It wasn’t made to be controlled,” Ray sighed, rubbing his arms. Earth was colder than his planet. Ryan had given him an old, thick coat before they drove out there.

            “Think we can push it out?” Ryan said, frowning down at the slope.

            Ray frowned at Ryan before sliding down the slope. Ryan was about to follow, freezing as Ray lifted the pod with one hand. Jaw dropping, he watched Ray only struggle slightly as he climbed the slippery slope.

            “What?” Ray said as he set the pod down next to Ryan, “They were made to be carried.”

            Ryan blinked at Ray, slowly closing his mouth. “How-how much does that thing way?”

            “Only a ton,” Ray shrugged before frowning down at the crater, “Should we fill this hole?”

            Ryan stared at Ray for a long moment before slowly sitting down. Ray watched Ryan with a worried frown. “I’m okay,” Ryan said before Ray could ask, “Just, processing the fact that you think a ton is nothing.”

            “But it is?” Ray said slowly, brow furrowing, “It’s the smallest measurement of weight for testing strength on my planet.”

            Ryan took a shaky breath before smiling up at Ray. “I can lift only a couple of pounds, Ray.”

            Ray blinked down at him blankly before slowly sitting down next to him. “I understand then,” he said, as they both lapsed into stunned silence.

            Taking a deep breath, Ryan stood and looked at the orb. “We can put it in the barn,” he said with a nod.

            Ray blinked up at Ryan and smiled. He jumped to his feet, frowning when Ryan sighed in relief. “What?”

            “For a moment, I thought you were going to fly into the air when you jumped,” Ryan said, watching Ray pick up the pod.

            “Why would I do that?” Ray said, following Ryan back toward the truck.

            “I donno, your planet’s gravity being stronger than Earth’s or something,” Ryan shrugged, looking between the truck and the pod, “That will crush the truck.”

            Ray laughed and nodded. “I’ll walk as you drive,” he said already starting down the road, “And my home’s gravity is about the same as this planets. I can’t fly or anything.”

            “But everything it heavier? Is that why you keep picking things up like you think they should weigh more?” Ryan said, slipping into his truck and rolling down the window.

            “Yep!” Ray called over his shoulder, smiling at Ryan as he kept walking.

            Ryan shook his head in amazement, slowly driving beside Ray. Ray set the pod down in the barn, watching Ray throw a tarp over the sleek black metal. Wordlessly, he trailed after Ryan back into the house.

            “What else can you do?” Ryan said after they had settled down onto opposite ends of the couch.

            “What do you mean?” Ray said, curled up into a ball, hugging his knees to his chest.

            “This morning, your hands glowed white and you can lift a fuck ton more than I can,” Ryan said slowly, frowning when Ray winced and gave him an apologetic smile, “I just want to know what else you can do.”

            “Oh, well,” Ray said softly, staring into the distance, “Those lights I can form are pure energy. They can melt anything. I can also heal.” He tilted his head to the side, eyes focusing on Ryan again, “I can’t think of anything else.”

            Ryan nodded, a chill shooting up his spine. He was almost melted by pure energy that morning. Good to know. “I’m going to be honest, that’s fucking cool.”

            Ray looked at Ryan with wide eyes for a moment before laughing. “You think? That is all relatively normal where I come from,” he said, resting his cheek on his knees.

            “Yeah, but humans don’t really have any abilities like that,” Ryan said, smiling at Ray, “We’re living in a fucking comic book and it’s kind of awesome.”

            “Comic book?” Ray said, brow furrowing.

            Ryan shook his head and stood, waving for Ray to stay. “I’ll show you,” he said, rushing up the stairs and into a spare room he had turned into a junk room so he wouldn’t have to go into the attic all that often.

            He lost Ray to his old comic books while he made diner. After they had eaten, Ryan showed Ray video games, amazed at his skills.

            “They’re like the simulators on my planet,” Ray said, smiling sheepishly down at the controller, “Although the controllers are easier to use.”

            Ryan snorted, shook his head, and then started another game with the two of them on the same team. Ray fell asleep long before midnight, controller dangling from his fingers and soft snores leaving him.

            Ryan grabbed a long piece of plywood from the barn and poked Ray awake from a safe distance. Ray, thankfully, didn’t try to melt his face off this time and instead blinked tiredly at him.

            “Come on,” Ryan said softly, setting the board down and holding his hands out to Ray, “Let’s go to bed.”     

            Ray nodded, head lolling to the side. Ryan struggled to pull Ray to his feet, realizing that Ray’s weight was just outside his strength. “Guess I need to work out again,” he grunted as he struggled to hold an already asleep alien up.

            He got Ray over his shoulder and slowly made his way up the stairs. “Although this is a better work out,” Ryan gasped, finally dropping Ray onto the bed. Hands on his knees and panting, he looked up and smiled at the soft smile on Ray’s face as he snuggled into the blankets. Shaking his head, he wondered out of the guest room, closing the door softly behind him.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan winced at the crunch and snap of metal, struggling not to make a face. Ray ate away at a short length of silver chain, a few other types of chain lying beside his empty plate. Within two days of being on Earth, Ray got ill from his deficiency and Ryan had to drive the two hours into town to get metal of all kinds. Chain was the cheapest and easiest thing to get.

            Since, Ray ate from the variety of chain, white teeth appearing no different from a humans but certainly significantly stronger. Ryan cringed, leaning away at a particularly loud snap of chain.

            “Sorry,” Ray mumbled, cheeks flushed as he looked away from Ryan. He played with the end of the chain.

            “No, don’t apologize,” Ryan said, the sound of Ray’s teeth rubbing against the metal making his mouth hurt, “You have to do this, it’s not your fault.”

            Ray gave Ryan a soft smile before biting off another link. Ryan took a deep breath and refocused on what was left of the turkey diner he had made. Eventually, the sound of teeth grinding metal melted into the background.

            They lived relatively solidary lives out on the farm. Ray had seen the town only a few times and was uneasy about all of the people and strange things. The second time they went, he had more of a working knowledge of the Earth but still flinched away from other people.

            “I was never one for crowds,” Ray had told Ryan on the drive home. Ryan didn’t really go into town unless he needed to anyway so he saw no need to force Ray to go with him any more than he had to.

            Ray helped Ryan around the farm, taking care of the animals who liked him far more than they liked Ryan. Even Edgar huffed at him. Ray had laughed when Ryan threatened to put the cow in a hole, sobering when Ryan informed him that he had done so before and would happily do so again.

            Throughout the weeks Ray had been there, they talked constantly about their respective planets and just in general. Ryan found himself loving Ray’s laugh and smile. Loved his sense of humor and his abilities even when he continued to destroy him at whatever game they played. He hated to admit how lonely the farm had been until Ray moved in but he had been.

            Once diner was finished, Ryan went out onto the back porch of the house and sat in the long rocking bench that had come with the house when he purchased the entire property from the former owner’s son. Ray, bundled up in two extra layers sat beside him, not an inch of space between them.

            Ryan smiled and relaxed, resting his arm along the back of the bench as Ray snuggled into his side, claiming with a blush that he just wanted Ryan’s heat. He wasn’t dumb, neither of them were, they just weren’t in a rush.

            They sat in peaceful silence, occasionally asking each other questions or making conversation. Just as he was about to suggest they go inside, an eerily familiar streak appeared in the sky before something slammed into the ground not far from the filled in crater Ray’s ship had made.

            Ray and Ryan stared at the slowly rising smoke, tense with their lips pressed into tight lines. “I guess we should do something about that,” Ryan said slowly, frowning when Ray’s fingers curled tightly into his shirt.

            “I don’t think we do,” Ray said slowly, looking up at Ryan with fear clouding his eyes.

            Ryan frowned down at Ray, carefully wrapping his arms around him. “I thought they didn’t believe in the death penalty.”

            “They don’t, they also don’t believe a criminal should be able to control his fate,” Ray said, trembling slightly in Ryan’s arms.

            Ryan’s brow furrowed until he remembered how Ray ended up on Earth in the first place. Scowling, he stood, herding Ray into the house. “How did they find you?”

            Ray frowned, beginning to shake his head when he froze, heart beat heavy and hard against Ryan’s chest. “My pod, they must have been tracking it.”     

            “Then they know you’re here,” Ryan said, pushing Ray into the house before grabbing the shot gun he had never had to use, “Stay here.”

            “No!” Ray gasped, grabbing Ryan’s arm as tightly as he could without crushing his bones, “If guns work like you told me, they won’t do anything to a warrior.”

            Ryan tensed and looked down at the shot gun. Biting his lip, gears began to turn in his head. “Alright, I have an idea.”

           

* * *

 

            Wearing a white jump suit with heavy metal arm guards, a warrior of planet four thousand, two hundred and forty nine was big, they were handpicked to be. Scars from many near death battles in training. She had broad shoulders and thick muscles. Her hair was shaved short and her armor was no different from a man’s.

            Like all warriors, she had no sense of thought or feeling for herself. Such things were beat out of them when they started training at a young age. All warriors were breed to be powerful, strong, and big.

            Dependent but not dumb, she was aware she was capable of overthrowing those in charge of her like all other warriors, but like others, she saw no gain in that fight. She was aware she could abandon her task and be free but there was no point in that either. She had a home on planet four thousand, two hundred and forty nine and people who would chase her down if she left.

            She was not an idiot, she knew exactly what she was doing and knew that she was walking into a trap when she followed the rouge pod’s tracking signal to a wooden house. Scoffing at the buildings vulnerability to fire, she ripped the tarp from the ship and stared down at the empty vessel.

            She turned robotically at a click behind her. A resident of planet sixty nine stood behind here with a strange, primitive looking weapon. He had short blond hair and blazing blue eyes. He was a head shorter than her and did not look weak, although, she knew he was much weaker than her.

            “You’re going to leave, one way or another,” the human said slowly, finger twitching on the trigger.

            The warrior cocked her head to the side and grinned. The human swallowed hard and fired. The lead bullets bounced off of her skin, singeing her armor but not damaging her at all. The force of the hit certainly took her by surprise but didn’t even make her stumble.

            The human swallowed hard, smiling humorlessly. “To be honest, I thought you were going to try and eat the bullets.”

            She raised an unamused eyebrow and took a step forward. The human didn’t move, nor did he flinch. He continued to give her a tired smile. Even she was impressed.

            She ordered the human to tell her where the traitor was but he simply shook his head. “I don’t understand your language and I doubt you know mine,” he said, brow furrowing, “And you’re definitely not kissing me to figure it out.”

            She rolled her eyes and pointed at the pod. There was no need to kill this human. She could use gestures since his mind was not strong enough to understand her even though he could not speak her language.

            “What about it?” the human said, letting the gun hang at his side.

            She frowned and pointed at the pod again, stomping her foot and denting the ground. She was told to use necessary force if she must.

            The human shrugged and gave her a tired look. “I’m too tired for this,” he said, before raising the gun and pulled a piece of metal. The gun clicked and he aimed at her again.

            Scowling, she raised her hand to rip the gun from his hands when a bright white light shined out of the corner of her eye. She was knocked off her feet at the sheer force of the blast of pure energy.

            The human kept his gun on her as she found her footing again. “You’re species can’t see well here,” he said, slowly reaching for something in his pocket, “In fact, your eye sight sucks in general.”

            She frowned, gasping when something bright was shined in her eyes. She tried to blink past the spots in her eyes, not seeing the traitor drop from the ceiling, slamming feet first into her head. She slammed into the ground, the soil giving away.

            Before she could grab him, he was gone, nothing more than a blur in her dark vision. Their planet had week lighting while planet sixty nine had extreme darkness and light. Her eyes were very slow to adjust.

            As she tried to sit up, she listened to the breathing of the human, swatting her arm in his direction to try and catch him. He was harboring a planetary criminal, he would pay like the traitor would.

            She growled in pain as a bigger blast of energy slammed into her arm from above, burning her skin and bone. Panting hard, she held on tightly to what was left of her arm. She was not going to win here, not if that human knew how to keep her from seeing.

            Wobbling where she stood, she ran in the direction she thought the door was, tripping over something soft. She whirled and grabbed the human’s leg, smirking at his yelp. Forcing her power to her finger tips, she flung a blast of energy at his blurry form.

            “Ryan!” the traitor shouted, dropping to the ground as the human’s body fell into a heap. Grinning, she could make out more of the traitor, eyes widening when she saw the sheer ball of energy building between his hands. His eyes glowed white as tears streamed down his cheeks.

            She covered her head as the ball of energy bigger than her slammed into her body, disintegrating her.

 

* * *

 

            Ray collapsed to the ground next to Ryan, tears dripping off of his cheeks as he breathed ruggedly. He scrambled to pull Ryan to him, looking at the sizeable hole in his shoulder in horror. The heat of the energy had cauterized the wound, but his arm was nearly falling off.

            Ryan smiled up at Ray, eyes unfocused and foggy. He reached up with his good arm and wiped his tears away with his trembling fingers. “I hope you can fix this,” Ryan croaked as Ray caught his hand and placed his other over the hole.

            “Of course I can,” Ray sobbed, hand glowing a soft red, “You’ll be fine.”

            Ryan nodded and closed his eyes, weakly squeezing Ray’s hand. “Good, I’m not going out dramatically.”

            Ray coughed a laugh, watching Ryan’s shoulder recreate itself. “No, that’s not your style.”

            Ryan shook his head and pressed his face into Ray’s shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere,” he grunted when his bones snapped back into place.

            “I know,” Ray sniffed, holding onto Ryan’s fully formed shoulder as he turned his head and kissed him on the lips gently.

            Ryan smiled against him, eyes still closed. “As much as I want to kiss you again and not for language purposes, I’m probably going to pass out,” he said, voice slurring.

            Ray laughed and hugged Ryan tightly. “Go to sleep you idiot,” he croaked, looking at the burned hole in the ground where the warrior had been. He frowned, a few tears still slipping down his face.

            Ryan shook his head as Ray fretted around him the next day. “I’m fine, Ray,” he laughed as he made them breakfast. He had woken up like he normal did, only this time, an exhausted Ray was curled up on top of him, making breathing only slightly difficult.

            “I’ve never healed something that bad before,” Ray said, poking Ryan’s new shoulder.

            “You did fine, it feels better than it did before,” Ryan said, smiling at Ray as he moved the pan off the hot burner.

            Ray opened his mouth, eyes on Ryan’s shoulder. He never got the chance to speak, Ryan caught his cheek and moved close enough for their lips to graze each other. “I almost forgot,” Ryan said softly as Ray tensed, looking at Ryan with wide eyes, “I wanted to kiss you again.”   

            Ray’s cheeks turned red under his fingers. He slowly smiled and reached up, tangling his fingers in Ryan’s hair before kissing him. Ryan laughed against his lips, kissing back as he wrapped his arm around his waist.


	12. Siren Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being disowned by his parents, Ryan takes his crew (Geoff and Jack) to the most dangerous part of the ocean to hopefully find something rare and valuable. Instead they find three beautiful sirens who try to kill them with their songs. After their near death experience Ryan makes a plan to lure and capture one of the sirens to sell. The plan worked and they caught the siren, Ray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!

            They hadn’t spoken since sailing their ship from the dock. Ryan hadn’t moved away from the wheel of their small boat, unfocused eyes staring straight ahead. Geoff and Jack shared looks under the swinging boon, ducking when the wind snapped at the sails.

            Ryan’s jaw was clenched, nose wrinkling in a scowl. His knuckles were white on the prongs poking off of the wheel. Geoff and Jack ducked under the boon, scrambling to secure the provisions they had just tossed into the small hold under the deck. Three hammocks hung from the ceiling, brushing the top of crates and barrels.

            The ship was barely big enough for the three of them. There was little room for the small kitchen that was tucked into the corner next to the hammocks. The rest of their things had to be tied down as the boat rocked with the waves. There was only four feet of clearance between the deck and bottom of the boat.

            On the top deck, the tall sail hovered three feet from the deck and stopped just short of the wheel. Geoff and Jack were trying to secure the sail long enough for them not to be beamed in the brain.

            “Think he’ll talk tonight?” Geoff hissed to Jack, handing him a bundle of rope.

            “Probably not,” Jack sighed, unrolling the rope. “You know how Ryan gets when it concerns his parents.”

            Geoff sighed and shook his head, watching Jack wrap one end of the rope to one of the cleats. The three of them had always been thick as thieves, despite Geoff and Jack both being the sons of servants serving the Haywood family. Ryan had never been much like his parents, that morning’s argument had apparently been the last straw.

            Ryan had stormed out of his family mansion, hooked his arms with Geoff and Jack and dragged them to the docks. They watched in stunned silence as Ryan bought their small boat, plenty of previsions and equipment then had them ship off once everything was on the boat.

            They weren’t even sure where Ryan was sailing to. _Away_ seemed like a fair assumption. Geoff glanced back at Ryan, frowning when he saw his shoulders bunch up near his ears. He was biting his lip so hard, Geoff considered handing Ryan a handkerchief now for when the skin eventually broke.

            “What even was it today?” Geoff said, looking back at Jack.

            Jack was wrapping the rope around the boon, trying to make the line tight. “I don’t know, you’re the one that likes to eavesdrop.

            Geoff scowled at Jack and dropped from a crouch to his ass. “I don’t normally have to,” he spat, hooking his elbows on his knees and folding his hands, “They weren’t yelling loud enough this time.”

            Jack sighed and nodded, knotting the rope. “I only understood parts.”

            Geoff nodded and rubbed his face. He yelped when the boon suddenly swung toward him, making the rope slack. He folded in half, holding his head as Jack struggled not to laugh too loudly.

            Ryan flinched at the sound, looking down at Geoff and Jack. He blinked as Jack slowly lost to his amusement, Geoff cursing and smacking the heavy wooden boon away from him. He slowly smiled, wincing when he felt a sharp pain in his lips then tasted blood.

            Scowling, Ryan reached up and ran his fingers over his lips. His fingers came away bloodied and he sighed. He looked out ahead of them again as Jack laughed and Geoff cursed. Away, he was going away. From his parents, from their stupidity, from a dull city. He would achieve his own greatness.

            Smiling as blood dripped from his lips, he focused on the smooth waters ahead of him. He didn’t notice Geoff and Jack frowning up at him, wincing at the bright red blood slipping down his chin, dripping to the dark, wooden floor.

            “He looks like he ate someone,” Geoff whispered to Jack, eyeing the few beads of blood slipping down Ryan’s neck.

            Jack shook his head and went around to the other side of the boat. Geoff frowned and followed, passing Jack another bundle of rope.

            He watched Jack try and control the boon for a moment before ducking under the beam and walking over to Ryan. He pulled a ratty cloth from his pocket and pressed the graying cloth to Ryan’s chest.

            “I don’t think you want to walk around looking like you sucked someone’s blood,” Geoff said when Ryan looked down at the cloth in confusion.

            Ryan snorted and took the cloth, wiping his chin and lips. “Sorry,” he mumbled, rolling his eyes when Geoff yanked the cloth from his hand. He wrinkled his nose when Geoff spat onto the cloth then cleaned the smeared blood from his chin then neck. “That’s fucking gross.”

            “So is letting blood drip from your face,” Geoff snorted, stuffing the pink stained cloth into his pocket once Ryan’s skin was clean.

            “I donno, now that we’re almost pirates, I would think we’d want to scare people,” Ryan said with a crooked grin. He frowned when Geoff folded his arms and raised an unamused eyebrow. “Alright, what?”

            Geoff sighed, brows furrowing as he squeezed Ryan’s shoulder. “Are you alright?” he said carefully, looking between Ryan’s eyes.

            Ryan opened his mouth, his slowly scabbing lips pulling painfully. “I’ll be alright,” he said after a moment, “I’m just, annoyed.”

            “Obviously,” Geoff said, gesturing around them.

            Ryan snorted and rolled his eyes, looking ahead again. “I just, can’t deal with them anymore.”

            Geoff nodded, giving Ryan’s shoulder a stern shake before letting go. “That’s fair, they were fucking assholes,” he said, smiling when Ryan snorted again, “But that doesn’t mean we should just traverse the sea without anywhere in mind.”

            Ryan narrowed his eyes at Geoff, fighting a smile. “Are you saying I don’t know where we’re going?” he said, laughing lightly when Geoff pursed his lips and gave him a pointed look.

            “You get lost in that damned mansion,” Geoff said, chuckling when Ryan laughed.

            “Fair, but I don’t have a map of that place,” Ryan said, dipping into the pocket of his coat.

            Geoff raised an eyebrow and took the folded, yellowing paper Ryan held out to him. He unfolded the stiff parchment carefully, holding a detailed map out in front of him. Known continents and lands were carefully drawn out, little peaks all over the map in bodied of water. He frowned at the heavily inked X on one of the maps corners in the middle of the ocean.

            “I’m guessing there’s treasure at the X?” Geoff said, lowering the map and turning toward Ryan.

            “That’s the theory,” Ryan nodded, frowning when Geoff rolled his eyes, “What? We have a destination and there should be an island there.”         

            “Should be doesn’t mean much,” Geoff sighed, carefully folding the map again, “Where did you get this?”      

            “Remember that sailor that used to tell us stories when we were kids?” Ryan said, taking the map back with a huff.

            “Yes, he was crazy and had a glass eye, what’s your point?” Geoff said, folding his arms.

            “Well, about a week ago I met his captain,” Ryan said, tucking the map back into his pocket, “He gave me this map after I told him I was thinking of sailing.”

            Geoff’s brow furrowed as he frowned, going tense. “And you actually believe he gave you something real? If there was really treasure there, don’t you think he would have gone there already?”

            Ryan rolled his eyes and scowled at Geoff. “He did go there and didn’t find anything,” he snapped, scowling at the wheel.

            “Then why are we going?” Geoff said, turning to lean back against the short railing sectioning the wheel off from the rest of the ship.

            “Because I think he missed something. He said there was an island there, but they never went onto the island since it was too far from the X,” Ryan said, frowning at the sail snapping in the wind, “Whatever is actually there must be on that island.”

            Geoff sighed and shook his head. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, watching Ryan as he tried to ignore Geoff’s stare. They weren’t turning back now and there was no reason in arguing. Taking a deep breath, Geoff forced a smile, gave Ryan a one armed hug, and then wondered back over to Jack who was struggling to get the boon to hold still.

            Ryan watched Geoff for a moment before closing his eyes and sighing. Anything was better than being home. They would find something, they would make something of themselves. He could do this.

            Despite starting out from the closest known city to whatever the map was leading them, the trip still took weeks. Jack had worked in the Haywood kitchen, easily rationing their supplies. Geoff, despite being hit by the boon constantly, quickly learned how to properly man the ropes and sail. Ryan stayed at the wheel, following the map toward the X.

            They hadn’t seen land in weeks when a spot finally appeared in the distance. “What the fuck is it?” Geoff said, squinting with his hand covering his eyes form the sun. All of them were burned and tanned, skin peeling and tightening.

            “Hopefully it’s an island,” Jack said, rubbing his eyes, “Being on a ship stuck with only the two of you is starting to get to me.”   

            “I’d be offended if you weren’t right,” Geoff mumbled, looking at Ryan who was still staring at the island with a collapsible telescope, “Well?”

            “It’s an island,” Ryan breathed, slowly smiling, “It’s an island!”

            Geoff and Jack shared surprised looks before squinting at the black dot in the distance. They had all had their doubts about what the captain had told Ryan, including Ryan himself. After weeks only seeing two other people, wood, and ocean, they were all left with their thoughts a little too long.

            Ryan laughed and pushed the telescope into Geoff’s hands. “If we catch a strong enough gust, we’ll be there before dark,” he said, slipping under the railing and rushing over to the boon.

            Jack frowned as Geoff looked through the eyepiece. “Holy shit,” Geoff breathed, passing the telescope to Jack, “That’s actually an island.”

            Jack put his eye to the glass as Geoff rushed to help Ryan. “I’ll be damned,” he laughed lightly, staring at the small, distant island.

            Without a good breeze to catch, their boat hit the sand of the relatively large island’s shore well into the night. All three of them stumbled off the boat, wobbling as the land didn’t move with the ocean under them.

            Geoff dropped to his knees then face planted into the sand with a muffled laugh. Jack fell backwards, pushing his arms and legs through the sand. Ryan stared up at the lush trees edging the beach, eyes wide with awe. He spread his arms out, knees shaking. “Thank fuck,” he said, smiling when Geoff and Jack laughed.

            Despite not wanting to look at the ship for at least a few days, they retired to their hammocks. In the morning, Ryan was awake before Geoff and Jack, excitement bubbling in his stomach and filling his chest. He dropped from the boat and wondered toward the tree line.

            Palm trees towered over small bushes and shrubs. A few bushes had berries and a few plants he recognized as herbs littered the ground. Birds sung in the sky, shaking the branches of shorter trees. Ryan grinned as he took one step past the tree line. He paused and looked back at the ship.

            Snatching a stick from the ground, he smoothed out a patch of sand and carefully dragged the stick through the sand. Smiling at his note, he set the stick aside and walked back into the trees. The further inland he went, the more fruit trees and animals he saw.

            He spotted a strange looking animal that was smaller than a goat but bigger than a cat as he walked. He followed the squealing animal that seemed to be a giant rodent to a pond with clear water. The rodent raced around the pond, disappear on the other side as Ryan looked down into the water, able to see all the way down to the bottom.

            Ryan whistled, grinning at the clear water before looking around. The forest chittered all around him, trees shaking in a cool breeze. Closing his eyes, Ryan breathed in deeply, loving the fresh smell of the island.

            He jumped and opened his eyes when he heard Geoff shout his name. Sighing, he turned away from the pool, not hearing the water splashing and lapping the sides.            

            “I left a note,” Ryan chuckled as Geoff continued to hug him tightly.

            “Geoff ran through it,” Jack said, looking down at what was left of Ryan’s note.

            Ryan snorted and patted Geoff’s head as he continued to mumble hysterics into his shoulder. “Right, but now that you’re awake, we should look for that treasure.”

 

* * *

 

            Once Ryan managed to pry Geoff off of him, he led them into the forest. He smiled as they came back to the pool, the water just as clear as when he first saw the pond.

            “Wow,” Jack breathed, looking down into the glittering water.

            “Think it’s fresh?” Geoff said cupping his hands and dipping them into the water.

            “Probably, since it’s so clear,” Ryan said, looking around them, “I wonder where the treasure would be.”

            “I hope it’s not at the bottom,” Jack said as Geoff took a long drink of the water, “That’s a ways down.”

            “It’s clean,” Geoff said happily, licking his lips, “and fucking delicious.”

            “It’s water, Geoff. It doesn’t taste like anything,” Ryan snorted, shaking his head.

            “Yeah it fucking does,” Geoff said, frowning up at Ryan, “The water in port taste like shit.”

            Jack rolled his eyes as Ryan snorted and argued that water was just water, like always. He looked back down into the pool, eyes widening when he saw a glowing pair stare back. “Uh, guys?” he mumbled, backing away slowly.

            Neither Geoff nor Ryan heard him, but they all heard the soft song that floated from the water. Geoff and Ryan froze mid-argument, looking over at the pool. The song was different for all of them, in different voices.

            Jack heard a higher, smooth voice as Geoff heard an accented one. Ryan was mystified by the beautiful, silky voice he heard, taking a hesitant step toward the pool. They all leaned over to look down into the pond.

            Jack’s eyes locked onto the brown eyes of a curly haired man with pale skin. Orange scales started around his belly-button a long slithering tail coiling in the water. Geoff was captivated by a thinner man with wild brown hair. Green scales lead to a fish’s tail.

            Ryan stared at a young man with fluffy brown hair and a shaggy, short beard. His brown eyes swirled with a beautiful red tint. Tan skin led down into beautiful, blue scales and a tail shorter than the red one.

            All three of the humans stumbled closer to the edge of the pool, eyes glued to the creature singing the song they were hearing. All three felt their hearts beat hard against their chests, eyes wide and captivated.

            The creatures were almost to the surface when Geoff saw slim lips turn into long, sharp teeth. Gasping in fear, he stumbled back, grabbing Ryan and Jack’s arms and yanking them away from the edge of the pool.

            Disorientated from the spell, Ryan and Jack could barely keep their footing as Geoff dragged them back through the forest away from the pool and the creature’s songs. They tumbled out onto the sand, breathing hard and confused.

            “What the fuck just happened?” Jack said, staring up at the sky, still dizzy.

            “What were those things?” Geoff squealed, clutching his shirt over his heart, “They had demon teeth!”

            “Sirens,” Ryan breathed, leaning over the sand, “They were sirens!” He looked up as Geoff and Jack looked over at him with wide eyes.

            “Sirens?!” Geoff squeaked, eyes rolling back into his head as he fell back in a faint.

            Jack’s jaw hung open, staring at the gleam in Ryan’s eyes. “No,” he said scrambling to his feet as Ryan jumped up, “Fuck no!”

            “They’re the treasure!” Ryan gasped, laughing to himself as Geoff groaned and held his head.

            “That X was a warning!” Jack snapped, glaring at Ryan, “Those things were going to eat us!”

            Ryan rolled his eyes. “They’re our ticket to greatness!” he said, raising his arms as a tight bubble of excitement grew in his stomach, “We need to capture one!”

            “Fuck no!” Geoff gasped, glaring up at Ryan, “Did you see two of them? They looked like snakes! And they have teeth! Sharp, sharp teeth!”

            “We need to leave,” Jack said, backing up toward the ship, “Before they grow legs and try to eat us again.”

            “We’re not leaving without at least one of them,” Ryan said, glaring at Geoff and Jack, “We’ll plug our ears so they can’t hypnotize us again.”

            Geoff and Jack stared at Ryan with dropped jaws. “You’re insane!”

            Ryan scowled, but before he could argue, Jack raised his hands and shot him a glare. “Okay, we’re all in shock and a little freaked out,” he said slowly, daring either Ryan or Geoff to say anything, “We need to calm down then consider this in a better state of mind.”

            Ryan and Geoff grumbled, folding their arms. Jack sighed, making Ryan sit. He calmed the two of them down until their hearts finally stopped pounding. “Okay, we should leave,” Jack said after a moment of silence.

            “Nope,” Ryan said, folding his arms, speaking again before Geoff could even open his mouth, “We’re out of money. We don’t even have enough to pay to dock. However, if we get one of the sirens, we’re guaranteed a place and some money on the main land.”

            Geoff opened his mouth as Jack tensed and gave Ryan a glare. Geoff sat with his mouth open for a long moment, not liking the smirk on Ryan’s face. “You fucking suck,” he eventually growled, folding his arms and pouting.

            Ryan smirked and nodded, leading all of them in an hour long preparation. Armed with cloth stuffed into their ears, a fishing net made out of the spare rope, and sharpened sticks, the three of them edged through the forest toward the pool, careful not to make a sound.

            Ryan waved for them to stop, peaking through the trees to see the three creatures lounging in the pool. They were speaking to each other, but the humans could only hear muffled, faint voices.

            The creature closest to them was the siren that had been singing to Ryan. He was running his fingers over his blue tail. Ryan turned to Geoff and Jack and pointed to the siren. Both men nodded before watching Ryan raise three fingers.

            Once the last finger fell, they burst from the trees, snagging the net around the siren. The three of them clenched their teeth as the siren thrashed, the other two disappearing in the water for a moment before the curly haired one burst from the water and lunged at them.

            Ryan smacked the siren back with his stick as Geoff and Jack pulled their captured creature out of the pool and toward the tree line, still thrashing and yelling. Ryan backed up after them, keeping the two other sirens away.

            Once he was past the tree line, he scooped the thrashing creature up and the three humans raced toward the boat. Ryan jumped onto the deck as Geoff and Jack pushed the boat into the water. Ryan made sure the siren was securely wrapped in the net before pulling Geoff and Jack into the boat as the waves grabbed the boat and yanked them out to sea.

            They collapsed on the deck breathing hard and laughing lightly. They slowly sat up as the boat rocked and dull thuds vibrated the deck.

            Ryan leaned up on one arm, looking over at the siren that was glaring at them, teeth razor sharp and snarling at them. The creature had freed his head from the net, the frayed ends of the rope brushing his skin.

            Very carefully, Ryan stood and walked over to the siren, keeping an eye on the creature’s thrashing tail and sharp teeth. He pulled the cloth from his ears and stuffed them into his pocket. “Okay, do you need to be in water?”

            “Fuck you!” the siren snarled, snapping his teeth at Ryan.

            Ryan sighed and shook his head. Getting the siren to hold still long enough for them to untangle him just enough to hang the net over the side of the boat took the three of them most of the rest of the day and night. Eventually they had the siren rolled into a section of the net and hanging off the boat just enough for his gills to be in the water.

            “Holy fuck,” Geoff wheezed, laying on the deck. His head throbbed from where the boon had smacked him in the head.

            Jack groaned from beside Geoff, holding his leg where the siren’s tail had hit him hard enough to make his bones ache. Ryan was leaning over the edge of the boat, looking down at the siren that was glaring up at him.

            They had managed to get the sirens arms trapped behind him, tail curled in on itself. His head still poked out of shredded net, but he couldn’t move his head far enough to rip more rope.

            Ryan frowned, something in his stomach twisting unpleasantly. The siren was breathing hard, occasionally squirming in the net, trying to free himself and only managing to make the net tighter.

            “Ryan?” Jack said, frowning at him, “Are you alright?”

            Ryan leaned up and smiled back at Geoff and Jack. “Go ahead to bed, I’ll take the wheel first.”

            Geoff and Jack shared looks before they drifted below deck, giving Ryan concerned glances the entire way down. Ryan sat beside the edge for a long time, resting his elbows on his knees. The wheel was tied still so that the wind could carry them slowly forward, away from the island that was already becoming a dot in the distance.

            Ryan blinked into space for a moment before looking down at the siren whose head was tilted up. He was watching his home disappear beyond the horizon. Ryan bit his lip and hugged his knees.

            “D-do you have a name?” Ryan said, wincing when the siren’s head snapped up to look at him, brown eyes burning.

            The siren said nothing, staring him down. Ryan didn’t miss the tears dripping from reddening eyes. “I’m sorry,” he croaked, forcing himself to stand and man the wheel.

            There was silence for a long time. The constant slap of water against the haul didn’t even register in Ryan’s mind. He jumped when he heard soft singing. Eyes widening as his mind began to fog, he scrambled to grab the pieces of cloth still in his pocket. He stuffed the cloth into his ears and clung to the wheel.

            He eventually drowned out the singing and focused on the open sea in front of them. When his eyes started to droop, he switched placed with Jack, warning him to plug his ears. Days passed slowly. At night, they would tie their hands to their hammocks and the wheel to keep the siren’s song from luring them toward him. During the day, they kept each other from going overboard.

            The siren refused to eat and Ryan never saw him catch anything to eat. One night he tried to ask the siren what he could eat, but never got an answered. Sighing, Ryan’s shoulders slumped and he frowned down at the siren.

            “We want you to live, please,” Ryan said after a long moment of silence.

            “Well I want to go home,” the siren snarled, glaring up at Ryan. His teeth were no longer sharp, his mouth looking rather human.

            Ryan’s eyes widened, jaw dropping. This was the first time the siren had spoken other than singing. His voice was as beautiful and smooth as his singing voice, although, he rasped and a bite edged his words.

            Ryan clenched his jaw and frowned down at the siren. He moved away from the edge and walked over to the wheel. The swirling, angry, burning in his stomach became tight and hard, making him want to fold in half. The further from the island they got, the longer the siren stayed tied to their boat, the worse the feeling got.

            Going home wasn’t an option. Not for Ryan, not for that siren. Not for Jack and Geoff, who he just dragged into this mess. Ryan’s knuckles turned white as he held onto the wheel. “Oh,” he hissed through his teeth, feeling a burning in the back of his nose.

            He looked over at the net, teeth grinding together. The knife hanging from his belt weighed against his hip, making his pants sag. He looked down at the hatch to below deck. Jack’s snores and Geoff creaking hammock echoed from below deck, too quiet to actually be heard. His heart weighed in his stomach, chest tight.

            Tying the wheel straight, he wondered back over to the net, pulling his knife from the sheath. The siren gasped and started to struggled, seeing him with the blade glinting in the moon light.

            Kneeling down, Ryan took a handful of the rope and started to saw at the lines. The siren stopped moving, watching Ryan with wide eyes. “I used to have a home,” he said, watching one rope snap free, “I-didn’t like it all that much.”

            The siren was silent, watching Ryan slowly cut the rope. “I never felt right and then they just decided to disown me because mom was pregnant again. I was so mad and all I had was Geoff and Jack. I thought maybe running away would mean I’d find someplace to belong, but I just dragged them away from their own homes and took you from yours.”

            The siren flinched when a little bead of water dropped from the sky onto his cheek. He looked up at Ryan who was biting his lip so hard he was bleeding. Blood dripping into the water and clung to his chin. His eyes were wet and red, filling with tears.

            “I’m sorry,” Ryan mumbled, cutting a few more strands, “I-this was stupid of me. And cruel.”

            The siren felt the net loosen slightly around him. He was able to pull his arms free. He watched Ryan as he carefully slipped through the net and disappeared into the ocean. Ryan sat back on his heels and waited for the sirens song to reach him. When nothing came, he sighed shakily.

            He would figure out what to do when they docked. Send Geoff and Jack home if they wanted to go. He’d ship off again, alone if he had to. Sighing again, he wiped the snot from his nose, tears from his eyes, and blood from his skin.

            He was just about to stand, still bleeding and crying when a hand suddenly slapping against the deck scared the shit out of him. He jumped back, looking down with wide eyes as the siren pulled himself up onto the deck.

            Ryan scurried back from the siren as he pulled himself up, human legs dangling behind him. The siren laid on his stomach against the wood, looking up at Ryan with a sheepish grin. “I have no idea how to get back.”

            Ryan stared at the siren for a long moment, jaw opening and closing. “What?” he said eventually, heart still pounding hard against his chest.

            “I don’t know the way back,” the siren said again, pushing himself up on his hands, “And since it’s your fucking fault I’m lost, I demand that you take me back.”

            Ryan pursed his lips, making sure to keep looking the siren in the eyes as he slowly moved his legs out in front of him. “I uh, okay,” Ryan croaked, shakily getting to his feet. He slowly backed toward the wheel, gasping when the boon swung suddenly and hit the back of his knees.

            Ryan caught himself on his hands as the siren snorted and laughed. He blinked up at the creature who was grinning down at him. Blinking slowly, he crawled backwards under the boon and to the wheel.

            Eyes never leaving the siren who was still grinning at him, he turned the boat slowly to keep from waking Jack and Geoff. Once they were back on course toward the island, Ryan tied the wheel still and slowly edged back over to the siren.

            The siren watched him with an amused smile. He frowned when Ryan shrugged out of his jacket. He leaned back as Ryan came closer, eyes narrowed. They were both tense when the jack dropped onto the sirens lap.

            The siren looked down at the coat as Ryan quickly backed away, wiping at the blood still staining his chin. Running his thin fingers over the coat, the siren carefully picked the Jacket up and wrapped it around his shoulders.

            Ryan sat down carefully across from the siren, watching him wrap the coat tightly around himself. “I’m sorry,” he croaked after a moment.

            The siren looked up, hugging the coat tightly, shoulders shaking as he shivered. “You’d fucking better be,” he snorted, scowling at Ryan.

            Ryan flinched and looked down at his lap. He frowned when blood dropped onto his already red fingers. “Shit,” he mumbled, wiping at his chin again.

            Jumping when there was a dull thud, he looked up to see the siren balancing on a foot and  knee, one hand holding the coat closed while the other waved in the air. The siren slowly got to his feet, keeping one arm out in the air as he wobbled on his feet.

            Ryan tensed when the siren took a hesitant step toward him. He backed up until he was pressed against the railing as the siren took shaking steps over to him. He swallowed hard as the siren came to stand above him. The creature really was beautiful, thin and lean with tan skin and thin hands.

            Ryan jumped when the siren dropped to his knees and grabbed one of Ryan’s hands. He froze as he inspected his fingers and blood. “That’s a lot,” the siren said idly, grinning when Ryan ripped his hand away, not liking the hungry look in brown eyes.

            Shifting away, Ryan reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the cloths he had been using to plug his ears. He wiped his hands clean and then pressed the pink cloth against his lips, frowning at the way the siren was watching him.

            “You eat me and you’ll never go home,” Ryan said, the air tense around them.

            The siren’s eyes snapped to meet Ryan’s, a crooked smile on his lips. “Sorry, it’s just the smell of blood,” he said, dropping to sit beside Ryan.

            Ryan scowled and edged further away. He was afraid to move too far away or take his eyes from the siren. He could turn and dig sharp teeth into his flesh at any point, dragging him into the water.

            “Ray,” the siren said suddenly, making Ryan jump again, “And you’re now Jumpy.”

            Ryan’s brow furrowed as the siren grinned at him. “What?” he said, leaning away as the siren leaned closer.

            “My name is Ray and I’m going to call you Jumpy until you tell me yours,” Ray said, smirking at Ryan.

            Ryan frowned and edged away again. “I-my name’s Ryan,” he said, narrowing his eyes when Ray nodded and leaned away again, “You’re fucking weird.”         

            “I don’t interact with humans, well, ones I don’t eat anyway,” Ray said with a shrug. He shivered, his hair starting to dry, “I don’t know how to act.”

            Ryan frowned, watching Ray pull his knees to his chest and wrap the long coat around them. He slowly sat up and focused on making his lip stop bleeding. He could feel Ray’s eyes on him every time he moved the cloth and more blood beaded on his lips.

            When Ryan pulled the cloth away, the once white material nearly soaked red, Ray placed his hands on his. Ryan turned his had to look at Ray, he froze, eyes wide, when Ray licked his bottom lip, saliva sticking to his skin.

            Ryan gasped and flailed his arms until he fell back, laying on the deck. Ray stared at him in shock for a moment before laughing. “What the fuck? I was just healing your lip.”      

            “By licking me?!” Ryan said, wrinkling his nose as he wiped his lips on his sleep. He pulled his arm away, expecting to see blood on his dirty white shirt, but only found a darkened wet spot.

            “Yes?” Ray said, smirking down at Ryan, “Siren’s blood and spit have healing properties. That’s why humans try so damn hard to kill us.”

            “Right, other than you trying to eat them,” Ryan mumbled, wiping his lips, “That was gross.”

            Ray rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Ah, get over it, you’re fine,” he snorted, watching Ryan sit up, “The scars on your lips are gone now too, you’re welcome.”

            Ryan blinked at Ray, reaching up to run his fingers over his lips. His skin was smooth, not even chapped like normal. “I wasn’t aware I had scars there,” he said after a moment, dropping his hand into his lap.

            “If you’re always trying to eat your own face, of course you have fucking scars,” Ray snorted, leaning back against the railing. He hugged his legs and rested his cheek on his knee.

            Ryan scowled at Ray’s smirk, tossing his bloodied cloth into the sea behind them. “Thanks,” he mumbled, rubbing his face.

            “No problem,” Ray snorted, turning his head away to watch the sun slowly begin to rise across from them.

            Ryan sighed and pushed himself onto his feet. Unless Ray had come up with some clever plot to get the three of them murdered back at the island, he doubted he would try to kill any of them any time soon. Instead, Ryan slipped under the deck, leaving Ray to watch the sun glow on the water.

            Geoff and Jack were more than a little worried when Ryan told them Ray was free and roaming the ship. They liked less that they were heading back to the island but didn’t want to argue with an angry siren. Geoff hovered over the siren with a knife in hand at all times during the day. Jack shied away when Ray got too close, looking sick at how quickly Ray dived into his food with deadly sharp teeth.

            Ryan was leery, always waiting for those sharp teeth to sink into his skin, although, they never seemed to come. He wasn’t as on edge as Geoff and Jack, however. Ray would trail after him, still getting used to his feet. He asked a million questions about what Ryan was doing and why. He wanted to know about the human world and laughed along with Ryan when he made murder jokes.

            Ryan knew that neither Geoff nor Jack wanted to be alone with Ray for very long, especially at night. So he would spend long nights steering the ship while Ray slept leaned up against his legs. In the morning, Geoff and Jack would force Ryan below deck to sleep, even for a few hours.

            Ray watched Ryan one night. His eyes were drooping as he looked up at Ryan. The human’s eyes had heavy bags under them. His shoulders slumped and his feet dragged. “Why aren’t you sleeping?” he slurred, gently tugging on Ryan’s pant leg. He still wore Ryan’s jacket, but Geoff had forced him into a pair of pants at some point.

            Ryan blinked down at Ray then shrugged. “I’ve never had an easy time sleeping,” he said, rubbing his left eye.

            Ray frowned then smiled. He stood slowly, grabbing Ryan’s hand and tugging. “Come on, tell Jack to steer or something.”

            “No, it’s fine,” Ryan said, pulling his hand free, “Just, go to sleep, Ray.”

            Ray pouted and shook his head. “Nope,” he said. He grabbed the ropes they used to make the wheel stay still before grabbing Ryan’s arms and dragging him toward the hatch. Ryan didn’t have the energy to fight so he let Ray scare Jack awake before letting himself be shoved into his hammock.

            He blushed as Ray slipped in beside him. Before he could open his mouth to protest, Ray started singing softly. Ryan tensed then relaxed as his eyes closed on their own. This song was different from the only other song he had heard from Ray. The tone was soothing and soft. He was asleep before he realized what was happening.

            When he woke in the morning, his back was to the rest of the room. Ray’s warm body was pressed against his back, his nose digging into his skin as he snuggled closer. Smiling gently, Ryan carefully dropped from the hammock and left Ray to sleep. He watched him curl into a ball for a moment before dragging himself onto the deck.

            Geoff and Jack sighed in relief when Ryan wondered onto the deck. “We can see the island again,” Jack said softly, pointing ahead of them.

            “Should be there soon,” Geoff said from the wheel, watching Ryan frown at the island, “Are you going to be okay?”

             Ryan stared at the small dot in the distance before sighing and rubbing his face. “Yeah,” he said, muffled by his hands, “I’m okay.”

            Geoff and Jack shared looks before shaking their heads. Ray woke up not long after Ryan. He bounced around the ship when he learned that they would be at the island soon. Ryan watched him cling to the railing of the ship, leaning over the water slightly, watching the island grow bigger.

            Smiling sadly, Ryan shook his head and focused on getting the ship to the island safely. By the time the hull scrapped against the soft sand of the island, the next morning had just passed. Ray leapt from the boat and stumbled in the sand, landing face first. Geoff and Jack stayed on the boat as Ryan laughed and jumped down.

            Helping Ray to his feet, he studied his bright smile for a moment before holding his arm tightly. Ray froze and looked up at Ryan, smile suddenly draining from his face. “I-uh. I guess this is good bye,” Ray said slowly, frowning at Ryan’s chest.

            Ryan bit his lip, laughing lightly when Ray slapped his shoulder and shot him a warning glare. Grinning, he looked over at the tree line. “Actually,” he said slowly after a moment, “We’re going to need more supplies if we’re to get back to the main island.”

            Ray’s eyes widened before he smiled brightly up at Ryan. He grabbed his hand and yanked him toward the trees. “There’s plenty of shit here,” he said pulling Ryan along and waved to Jack and Geoff.

            Ray and Ryan waited at the tree line for Geoff and Jack to stop their panicked, whispered conversation. “We’re only staying for a week,” Geoff said, head poking up from the tip of the ship.

            “Of course,” Ryan nodded, squeezing Ray’s hand. He smiled when the siren squeezed his back.

            Geoff nodded and dropped from the boat, Jack quickly following. They walked through the forest back to the pool. Ryan felt his chest suddenly become empty of a beat when Ray let go of his hand to race toward the pool.

            The three men watched as Ray dived into the pool, human feet melting into a long, blue tail. Holding their breath, they stayed near the trees as the water settled to being still again.

            They glanced nervously at each other. “Maybe we should come back tomorrow?” Jack whispered, eyeing the pond.

            Ryan nodded as Geoff turned to start back when a man burst from the water. The siren with curly hair raced at them on shaking legs, fingers ending in points and teeth sharp. Ryan gasped and pushed Geoff and Jack to run, nearly getting caught up on his own feet.

            Claws sunk into Ryan’s back as Geoff and Jack raced toward the beach. With a hiss, he tried to push forward, but claws dug into his arm and yanked him back. He grit his teeth as sharper ones sunk into his shoulder. He faintly heard Geoff, Jack, and Ray shouting past the blood rushing in his ears, but he was too focused on his skin ripping.

            He gasped and curled in on himself when the teeth and claws were suddenly torn from him. His world spun as the metallic smell of blood burned his nose. Hard, heavy hands he recognized grabbed at him, dragging him against the hard ground. He groaned, eyes opening when soft, thin fingers and long arms wrapped around his head.

            He blinked past his blurry vision, hearing yelling and arguing. A particularly loud shout made his ears ring and head throb. He squeezed his eyes shut again and curled up more. Careful fingers slipped through his blond hair as something wet and heavy dropped onto his shoulder.

            He slowly relaxed as the pain in his shoulder, back, and arm slowly left him. He cracked his eyes open and looked up at Ray who was smiling down at him. There were still voices arguing with each other as his world came into focus.

            Ryan’s brow furrowed and he blinked up at Ray who continued to run his fingers through his hair. The words being thrown around slowly started to sound like something he could understand.

            “-king saved him! He’s back, we’re leaving, fuck off!” That was definitely Geoff.

            “You fucking took him!” That was a voice Ryan didn’t know. “You’re not going anywhere!”

            “Geoff.” There’s Jack. “Calm down, this isn’t helping.”

            “Micoo.” Another voice he didn’t know whined, “X-Ray’s alright, let’s just let them go.”       

            “No fucking way!” both Geoff and whoever Micoo was said before growling at each other.

            Ryan groaned and closed his eyes, smiling when Ray laughed lightly. “I’m sorry, Rye,” Ray said, running his fingers over Ryan’s cheek bone, “Are you okay?”

            “Depends,” Ryan rasped, cracking an eye open and smiling up at Ray, “Am I still bleeding?”

            “Nope,” Ray said, smiling back, “You don’t even have any scars.”

            “Well, I think I’m pretty alright,” Ryan said, settling down more, “Although this pillow I’m lying on is pretty lumpy.”

            “This handsome pillow will dump your heavy ass head if you don’t be nice,” Ray snorted, chuckling when Ryan laughed loud enough to draw the others attention.

            Geoff and Jack relaxed slightly, smiling fondly at Ray and Ryan. The sirens stared with wide eyes as Ray and Ryan continued to talk to each other, ignoring them. They shared glances then looked at Geoff and Jack who just shrugged.

            The taller siren leaning on the shorter one grinned and cleared his throat. Ray and Ryan stopped mid-conversation, looking up at the sirens. “Yeah Vav?” Ray said, raising an eyebrow.

            The tall siren squealed and nearly tackled Ray to the ground in a hug as the shorter one scowled at them. Ryan sat up to stay out of the way, smiling at Ray laughing and pushing on the other siren.

            Once they were properly introduced, Geoff and Michael nearly killed each other with glares alone. Afraid to trust each other, they all ended up sleeping on the beach with one person from each side staying awake to watch each other.

            Jack shook his head as Geoff and Michael glared at each other. He settled down on a blanket he brought out for Ryan and himself. Before Ryan could even step toward the blanket, Gavin dived onto the sheet and started asking Jack a million questions.

            Jack looked at Ryan for help, scowling when he only laughed and went to the ship to take down his hammock. Once his hammock was laid out on the ground, Ray grabbed Ryan’s hand and yanked him down onto the gray cloth.

            Laughing lightly, Ryan let Ray snuggle into him before sighing and closing his eyes. He felt Ray’s breathing slowly as Gavin’s constant chatter eventually drifted away. Jack sighed then his soft snoring filled the air.

            Smiling at the soft snarls coming from Geoff and Michael, Ryan started to count to himself to try and sleep. He was just starting to drift of when Geoff woke him for his turn. Groaning, he sat up as Ray growled at Michael.

            Ray and Ryan stayed where they were, blinking tiredly at Michael and Geoff as they begrudgingly went to sleep in the sand as far from each other as possible. They looked at each other before laying back down. Ryan glared at the stars as Ray settled against him.

            “Ray?” Ryan whispered, shaking his shoulder gently. Ray wrinkled his nose then sat up a bit, pouting down at Ryan.

            “What?” Ray slurred, pouting more when Ryan just smiled at him for a moment, “What?”

            Shaking his head, Ryan turned on his side toward Ray and rested his head on his folded arm. “Can you sing that song again? The one to make me sleep?”

            Ray blinked down at Ryan before smiling and settling back down. He cuddled into Ryan’s chest, eyes closed. He took a deep breath before singing softly. Ryan smiled and closed his eyes, letting his mind finally shut off.

            Ryan was woken by shouting. Groaning, he covered his ears with his hands. Ray shifted against him, curling more into a ball.

            “Ryan,” Jack hissed, shaking Ryan’s shoulder, “I know you’re tired, but they’re going to kill each other.”

            Ryan sighed and glared over his shoulder at Michael and Geoff who were in yet another shouting match. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly sat up, chuckling when Ray clung to his shirt and tried to pull him back down.

            “Hey!” Ryan snapped getting Michael and Geoff’s attention. He pried Ray’s fingers from his clothes and holding them instead. “We need more supplies, we’ll leave in a week. Until then, you can watch us and make sure we’re not doing anything.”

            “Why don’t I just murder you all now?” Michael snarled, glaring down at Ryan, lips curled back to show monstrous teeth.

            “Michael!” Ray snapped, sitting up and glaring at the other siren, “Just shut up and let them do what they need to.”

            Michael shied away from Ray’s glare. Gavin looked between his friends before smiling brightly at Jack. “How can I help?”

            While Jack and Gavin took the boat out a little ways from the island to catch fish in a patched net, Ray helped Ryan gather water from the pond and edible berries and plants. Michael and Geoff spent their time glaring at each other, Geoff sharping a stick with his knife while Michael picked at his sharp teeth with long claws.

            “How much do you actually need?” Ray whispered to Ryan as they watched Michael and Geoff from the forest.

            “Honestly? This is enough,” Ryan whispered back, smiling slightly when Ray’s shoulders dropped and he scowled at the ground, “But the others don’t know that.”

            Ray’s head snapped up. He looked at Ryan with wide eyes for a moment before slowly smiling. “Great,” he whispered, surging forward to hug Ryan tightly, “I don’t want you to leave yet.”

            Ryan frowned and hugged Ray back tightly. “Me either,” he mumbled, pressing his face into the crook of Ray’s neck.

            When Jack and Gavin returned from fishing, Jack helped Ryan load the water and plants onto the boat. As they stored their supplies away, Jack narrowed his eyes and frowned at Ryan. They stared at each other for a moment before Jack sighed and shook his head.

            Ryan watched him leave, a tightness curling in his stomach. He wondered back onto the beach, smiling at Ray and Gavin talking to Jack and Geoff. Michael stayed at the edges, glaring at everyone.

            Ryan tensed when Michael looked his way. His eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth. Ryan nearly tripped trying to back pedal as Michael stormed over to him. “You,” Michael snarled, grabbing Ryan’s shirt and yanking him so they were nose to nose, “You did something.”

            “I haven’t done anything,” Ryan said slowly, ignoring Michael’s fish breath. He doubted he smelled any better.

            “You did! You kidnapped Ray and did something to him!” Michael snapped, claws ripping Ryan’s shirt.

            “Michael,” Ray said with a frown, edging toward them. Geoff had his knife out and Jack wasn’t sure if he should stop Ray or Geoff. Gavin watched from over Geoff’s shoulder, frowning worriedly.

            “You need to leave,” Michael hissed, ignoring Ray’s hand resting on his wrist.

            “We don’t have enou-“ Ryan began but Geoff interjected.

            “That’s bull and you know it,” Geoff mumbled, looking away when Ryan and Jack frowned at him.

            “Leave!” Michael yelled, pushing Ryan away before grabbing Ray’s wrist and storming into the forest. Gavin trailed after them, smiling sheepishly and waving.

            Ray pulled at Michael’s hand, looking back at Ryan with pained eyes. Ryan watched them disappear into the woods for a moment before turning away and heading for the ship. Jack slapped Geoff in the shoulder when Ryan passed, glaring at him.

            Geoff didn’t argue or glare back. He turned and followed Ryan to the ship, pushing on the haul. Jack sighed and helped, pulling himself onto the boat once they were back on the water. Ryan turned away from them and took the wheel, letting the ship glide over the water.

            Geoff and Jack shared looks before sighing and quietly getting to work. Ryan moved to bite his lip only to stop himself, feeling an invisible slap on his shoulder. Clenching his jaw, he forced himself to continue looking ahead.

           

* * *

 

            Ray watched Ryan’s ship become a faint dot in the distance from the beach. He hugged Ryan’s jacket tightly to himself. He had lost the pants when they arrived on the island but he couldn’t part with the jacket.

            He could still make out the white hull from the blue water. He hope Ryan wasn’t biting his lip again, making himself bleed. Clenching his own jaw, his fingernails dug into his palm through the jacket.

            “What the fuck are you doing here?” Michael said, slithering up to sit beside Ray. He curled his tail and picked at the orange scales.

            Ray scowled and pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping the jacket around his legs. He had finally gotten used to them. Gotten used to being on land instead of a boat. Wrapping his arms around his legs, he pulled the jacket tighter around himself.

            “Come on, Ray,” Michael groaned, bumping their shoulders together. He frowned when Ray leaned away from him. “They kidnapped you!”

            “And then brought me back,” Ray snapped, remembering the night Ryan freed him, the pain twisted in his face and the blood soaking his chin, clinging to the short beard he was beginning to grow.

            “So? Doesn’t fucking matter,” Michael snorted, folding his arms.

            “It matters to me!” Ray snarled, snapping his sharp teeth at Michael.

            Michael gasped and tumbled back, leaning back at his hands and scowling at Ray. “What the fuck? What do a couple of humans matter?”

            “They, he-“ Ray glared at the ground, holding his legs tighter, “I liked him.”           

            Michael frowned then rolled his eyes. “He’s human, he’ll die before us and he tried to kidnap you, he’s not worth it.”

            “He’s just, lost,” Ray said, waving his hand in the air, hoping to grab his words from the air, “He-kidnapping me really tore him up, that’s why he brought me back.”

            “Oh great, a criminal with a conscious,” Michael sneered, shaking his head, “He’s gone Ray, never coming back. Let it go.”

            Ray furrowed his brow and looked back out at the ship. His heart squeezed when he couldn’t find the ship on the horizon. “It’s gone,” he breathed, walking toward the water and squinting, trying to find the white dot.

            “Good riddance,” Michael snorted, folding his arms and looking away.

            Ray searched the horizon, chest heaving. Gritting his teeth, he raced into the water until the ground gave away and his legs melted together. He ignored Michael calling for him. He swam as fast as he could, jacket pulling at his shoulders as it became soaked.

            He panted hard as he swam, searching for the white haul of the ship. His muscles began to scream at him as he swam straight ahead. He felt himself begin to slow down when a white dot appeared in the distance.

            Gasping, Ray pushed himself to go faster, skin feeling raw as he approached a familiar wooden boat. Swimming down for a moment before pushing himself up, he launched himself at the ledge.

            He heard Geoff curse and Jack gasp as he slammed into the boat, clinging to the edge. “Ray?!” Ryan said, looking at him with wide eyes.

            “Hey Rye,” Ray smiled sheepishly, slipping and trying to dig his nails into the wood.

            Ryan stared at him for a moment, tense and still, before rushing forward and pulling him up onto the boat by his arms. Once Ryan was close enough and he wasn’t going to slip back into the water, Ray wrapped his arms around Ryan’s shoulders and refused to let go.

            Ryan eventually gave up trying to pull away. He laughed lightly, wrapping his arms around Ray’s waist and picking him up. Geoff and Jack watched Ryan get his arm under Ray’s tail, letting the rest wrap around his waist.

            “What are you doing here, Ray?” Jack said, edging forward to pat Ray’s shoulder.        

            “I don’t want you guys to leave,” Ray mumbled, clinging to Ryan’s shoulders.

            “Us, right,” Geoff snorted, smiling when Jack elbowed him in the side, “What? I’m right. Look at how red they’re getting.” He pointed at Ray and Ryan who were both blushing and shooting Geoff glares.

            Jack rolled his eyes and smiled at them. Ryan chuckled and squeezed Ray gently. “I don’t want to leave you either, but Michael will kill us if we stay any longer.”

            “Gavin and I will convince him,” Ray said, pressing his face into Ryan’s shoulder, “Stay, please.”

            Ryan frowned and looked at Geoff and Jack. They shared looks then stared back at Ryan. “What are you looking at us for?” Geoff said, folding his arms, “You’re the captain. We do what you do.”

            “But, you. I can’t make you give up civilization,” Ryan said, shaking his head, “Your families.”’

            “Ryan, don’t you think we would have complained from the beginning if we had any problems leaving all of that behind?” Jack said, smiling at him, “You’re our friend and frankly, living on an island away from the rest of humanity sounds pretty great.”

            Ryan looked between them as Geoff nodded and Jack just smiled. He blinked a few times, looking down at Ray who was staring up at him hopefully. “But you hate Michael,” Ryan croaked after a moment, looking at Geoff.

            “Eh, I’ll live,” Geoff shrugged, smirking back, “Gavin was kind of cute though.”

            Ray snorted and laughed as Jack rolled his eyes. “No shame,” Jack said, slapping Geoff’s shoulder.

            “Like you weren’t checking Michael out,” Geoff said, laughing when Jack turned red under his beard.

            Ryan laughed and shook his head. He looked down at Ray before kissing his forehead, feeling his tan skin start to heat up against him. “Okay, we’ll go back.”

            “Fuck yes!” Ray laughed, throwing his hands up and nearly knocking Ryan down with his tail. He smiled sheepishly as Ryan steadied them, turning his tail back into legs.

            Ryan chuckled and set Ray down before grabbing the wheel and turning the boat around. By night, the boat hit the beach once again.

            Michael and Gavin were fighting on the beach when they arrived. Michael was about to jump into the water while Gavin was holding him back. They stared at the boat in confusion as Ryan jumped down Ray still in his arms and still refusing to let go.

            “Hey guys,” Ray said sheepishly as Ryan set him down. He nearly fell to the ground as Michael and Gavin tackled him. He laughed and hugged them back.

            Ryan grinned down at them, holding them upright, as Geoff and Jack jumped down from the ship. “Lad pile,” Geoff mumbled with a smirk.

            “What the fuck were you thinking?!” Michael snarled after a moment, glaring down at Ray.

            “I was thinking we haven’t had other friends in years,” Ray snorted, folding his arms, “And that I’m in love with Ryan so fuck you.”

            Geoff and Jack snickered as Ryan turned red. Gavin gasped and hugged Ray tighter as Michael stared down at him with his mouth hanging open.

            They didn’t give Michael a choice but to accept that Geoff, Jack, and Ryan were living with them now. He grumbled to himself as they set up a permanent camp next to the pool and dragged the boat further up the shore.

            “He’ll come around,” Gavin said with a bright smile.

            “Better not murder us,” Geoff mumbled, smiling when Gavin nearly tackled him in a hug, asking strange questions.

            Ryan shook his head as Jack laughed. Ray grinned at all of them. The instant no one was paying attention, he grabbed Ryan’s hand and dragged him away from the others.

            “Welcome home,” Ray mumbled with a light blush once they were far enough away.

            Ryan blinked at Ray before smiling brightly. He wrapped his arms tightly around his waist and leaned in close. “Thank you,” he sighed as Ray wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

            Ray grinned and surged up to kiss Ryan. Eyes fluttering closed, Ryan kissed back, holding Ray tighter. In the back of his mind, he made a note to tease Ray for standing on his toes to kiss him.


	13. Why do all of the Trees Look the Same?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan and some of his friends go camping in the mountains. Unfortunately Ryan gets separated from his friends and gets lost. Soon after that he tripped and fell down a hill, breaking his leg. Lucky for him, a fairy named Ray with the power of plant manipulation found him and took him back to his magical world to be healed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!

            “All of the damn trees look the same,” Ryan mumbled as he stared up at the tree tops. Leaf blurred together as sunlight poked through the canopy. The dark bark of the trees made the green of leaf and brush neon.

             Decomposing leaf from falls past were caked on the ground, hiding insects and snakes. The down tree blocking the path had large holes in the bark, leaving the hollow center open to the sun. A few mushrooms clung to the sides of the bark.

            Ryan groaned, dropping his chin to his chest. He didn’t jump as a shoe string snake slithered past. Rubbing his face and pulling at the bags under his eyes, he stepped over the snake and leaned up against the fallen tree hovering about a foot from the ground.

            “Should have never agreed to camp in the fucking snake sanctuary,” Ryan groaned, feeling the bark shit then fall away under him. Stumbling away from the log, he scowled as the new hole in the side. “Shit, now that’s an hundred dollar fine,” he snorted, rolling his eyes.

            Why Geoff and Jack wanted to go camping was beyond Ryan’s understanding. Jack didn’t even like camping and Geoff was petrified of snakes. The ranger leading them was way too chipper about everything, including the fines involved if they happened to damage any of the trees or wild life.

            They hadn’t walked very far into the woods when Geoff started screaming about snakes. Ryan had lost count, but he was fairly certain the ranger was going to make Geoff pay a hefty sum for the amount of times he had screamed and scared animals away.            

            “Damn ranger,” Ryan grumbled, looking into the log. There didn’t seem to be anything living in the gap so Ryan carefully pulled himself up, standing in the hole for a moment, before dropping down on the other side. “If that fucker was any good at his job, I wouldn’t be lost!”

            Then again, Ryan distinctly remembered telling that tree hugging, money grubbing asshole that he was going to take a piss. He remembered the group stopping but the he had to find a tree without shrubs around the base so he wouldn’t have to pay a pissing fine.

            By the time he got back to the main path, they were all gone and Geoff’s high pitch screams were well into the distance. For a guy not wanting the forest to be damaged, he was plenty happy to leave Ryan stranded out there.

            “Is this even the path?” Ryan said, scowling at the tree that was right in front of him. The entire ground was covered in dead leaf and branches. Not only did all of the trees look the same, but the path was completely undiscernible from the rest of the forest. None of the trees were marked and there were no wooden posts. The ranger was the only one with a god damn map and he hadn’t even told them where the fuck they were going.

            Ryan’s fingers curled into tight fists. He eyed the tree for a long moment, trying to resist the urge to punch the damn thing until his fingers bleed or until the bark gave away. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he listened for Geoff’s shouts or the ranger’s chipper voice that he had lost hours ago.

            Shoulders dropping, his hands relaxed, he opened his eyes. “Fucking great,” he said, digging out his phone from the heavy backpack resting on his shoulders. He paused when he saw the extra sleeping bag hanging off of the bottom of his pack. Smirking, he opened the side pocket and pulled out his phone. “Sucks for Geoff then.”

            Ryan chuckled as Geoff’s sleeping bag banged against the back of his legs as he turned on his phone. He wouldn’t get any service, but he could at least us the phone’s compose to figure out where the information center and the car was.

            “Okay, so the info center was north of where we were before,” Ryan mumbled, turning his phone until the red half of the arrow pointed ahead of him, “And we went right and down a bit.” He turned the phone so that the little ‘SE’ was in line with him. He looked at the arrow then in the direct it was pointing.

            Frowning at the steep slope he could see rising in the distance, he made sure that the red arrow was still pointing in that direction. “I hope I’m right,” he sighed, moving around trees and avoiding stepping in the brush.

            The land suddenly became extremely steep and rocky as Ryan continued in the same direction. When the rocks started appearing, Ryan searched for the path. At that point in the trail, the path was obvious from the jagged rocks lining the dirt.

            Grinning as he spotted the path above him, he stuff his phone into his pocket and started the climb to the path. He faintly remembered the ranger telling them that the rocks were loose and could give away under them if they tried to climb straight down, that was why they made the path.

            Unfortunately, like the rest of the forest, only a small portion of the path was obvious versus the surrounding ground so Ryan just climbed straight for what he could see. He did test his weight on the rocks jutting out at awkward angles.

            He was so close to the path when the rock under him gave away. His arms flailed for something to hold onto, but every rock he grabbed gave and he tumbled backwards down the cliff. As he bounced off of jutting rocks, he curled in on himself, covering his head with his hands.

            He gasped in pain as he landed hard on his back on one bounce then got his leg temporarily caught between two rocks on the next. His vision became static as there was a sharp snap before he continued tumbling to the bottom of the cliff. His eyes were squeezed shut, lungs scrambling for breath. His back bowed as his leg burned extreme pain up to his skull.

            Ryan couldn’t move, not without fear of making the pain worse. He found himself hyper ventilating, trying to breath evenly again. Before he really knew what had happened, he passed out, still struggling to breathe properly.

           

* * *

 

            Ray peaked out from around the tree he had been watching the human from. He watched as the man squirmed in pain for a moment before he stopped moving all together, chest still heaving.

            Edging out from his hiding spot, he fluttered over to the man slowly. His eyes were squeezed shut and his mouth was dropped open, trying to gulp down air. His leg was bent at an unnatural angle, a little bit of white poking free from pale skin, making a trail of red slither down his legs. His red shirt was ripped and his blue shorts were smudged with dirt and dust. A little bit of blood was soaking into the socks just poking out of brown boots.

            Ray sunk down and rested his hand against the man’s chest. The trees bent closer, watching as their master poured enough magic into the man to make his back stop aching and his breathing return to normal.

            The man’s face slowly relaxed as the tension left him. Ray smiled as his breathing evened out. Turning back to the man’s leg, Ray frowned at the break. No amount of magic was going to be able to completely fix a break that bad.

            Standing slowly, Ray waved his hand and the ivy vines peeled away from their trees and slithered over to Ray. They slipped gently under the man and picked him up, a few vines wrapping around the man’s leg to keep the break from worsening.

            The man hissed in his sleep, groaning and starting to awake. Ray quickly placed a hand on his forehead, pushing the pain away as he summoned a vile into his other hand. He tapped some of the powder onto the man’s face, smiling as the man relaxed and went back into a deep sleep.

            Making the vile disappear, Ray guided the vines through the forest. He glided over the ground, bare toes just brushing leaf. They slipped past the human camp sites and trails, past the only sign in the entire woods warning humans not to pass.

            Ray smiled and waved his hand in the air again, golden magic slipping from his fingers and wrapping around the human, the vines, and himself. As they moved toward a cluster of trees, they shrunk in size and floated toward the tree tops.

            As they passed into the ring of trees, little houses and buildings sat into the trees, carved into the wood to protect them from the elements appeared. The trees branches held walkways and guide rails as tiny people and carts pulled by insects walked to and from different trees.

            A few of the fairies stopped and watched their king float past, a man resting in vines trailing after him. A few shook their heads while others whispered of another human Ray had taken pity on.

            “It’s a wonder anything ever gets done around here,” one fairy shouted, glaring at Ray, “All he does it wonder of into the human world.”

            Ray paused as the man continued to float on. He looked down at the fairy who had spoken, studying the red, silk dress she wore and the white flower in her hair. “Lady Alyssum,”   
he said as he floated down to her level, “It’s good to see you, how is your mother?”

            “Fine,” Lady Alyssum spat, looking away from Ray. She scowled as the other fairies bowed.

            Ray grinned and leaned toward the young fairy. “Now, what is the problem?”

            “Nothing,” Lady Alyssum mumbled, edging away from Ray.

            Ray pursed his lips then shrugged. “Very well,” he said carefully, turning away, “But, I will tell you this, it’s our duty to protect all creatures, including humans.” He smirked at Lady Alyssum over his shoulder before flying away from the branch. Lady Alyssum turned and ran home, entire body glowing red, as the other fairies watched with amused smiles.

            Ray continued through his kingdom, other fairies glittering different colors bowing to him as he passed. At the top of the center tree, a few thin rope bridges connecting the tree to the others, was a castle carved into the wood. Unlike the hollows and niches in the other trees, the castle was open on every side.

            Ray landed outside the gates where the vines and the man were waiting for him. The guards in molded stone armor shared glances before allowing Ray and the human to pass. Other guards and servants bowed their heads as Ray passed. A few eyed the human nervously before continuing their duties.

            Waving for two women to follow him, Ray brought the human to his room and rested him on his bed. The vines bowed before disappear from the room and out of the kingdom entirely to rejoin their trees.

            “I need some rags, bandages, and salve,” Ray told the women as he studied the man’s leg, “And two splints.”

            The women bowed before scurrying off to get what he needed. Once he was alone, Ray’s shoulders sagged and he frowned at the man. Gently, he brushed the man’s short blond hair from his face, smiling slightly. He was quiet the handsome human, Ray had to give him that.

            Shaking his head, Ray turned toward the man’s leg and carefully picked up the broken limb. “Sorry,” he mumbled before snapping the bone back into place, wincing as the man’s unconscious scream echoed through the castle.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan woke up hoping everything was a dream. His eyes were still closed as his brain came out of a heavy fog. He felt like he was still lying on his sleeping bag and he didn’t hurt as much as he did before passing out.

            Yet, he didn’t smell the plastic of his tent or hear Jack sighing and Geoff mumbling about snakes while the ranger happily told them about the dangers of the woods and fines. Actually, the world around him was quiet accept for a dull hum he couldn’t place.

            Taking a deep breath, he cracked an eye open and stared up at a wooden ceiling. Did they find him and bring him to the cabin? If so, why hadn’t they called an ambulance? He was fairly certain he broke his leg in that fall. Or was that also part of the dream?

            Groaning, he squeezed both eyes shut again. Taking a few deep breaths, he opened both eyes and pushed himself up onto his elbows. His left leg was wrapped tightly in white, silk bandages, two lumps running the length of his leg ended in little nubs of wood poking out of the bandages.

            Scowling, he slowly looked around, eyes widening. The room looked like the master bedroom of a castle. The ceiling was tall with gold leaf lining the corners and around the door. A dark blue was painted onto the walls. A stone dresser rested against the wall next to a stone desk that sat under a tall window that had no glass. His pack was resting on top of the dresser, unopened.

            Ryan stared out the window, jaw dropping. Buildings and homes were built into the sides of trees, little bridges and branches going every direction with tiny people flooding them. Ryan blinked as he made out a cart made out of sticks and leaf being pulled by a large, colorful beetle.

            “What the fuck,” Ryan breathed, running his hand through his hair. His head didn’t feel hot but what else could this be other than a fever dream? Looking back down at his leg, he bit his lip and cautiously poked at the bandages. His nose wrinkled as a purple goop squelched between the bandages. When his finger finally met skin, his vision blurred for a second as pain raced up his spine.

            Yanking his hand away and dropping back down onto the bed, Ryan closed his eyes and tried to will the pain away. He was awake but could certainly be hallucinating. He wasn’t sure what medicine they could give him to make this realistic of a vision or how hard he must have slammed his head into the ground, but this certainly couldn’t be real.

            He jumped when he heard the creak of a door opening. Grounding his teeth through the pain, he opened his eyes and looked over at the door. A young man stood on the other side, body glowing a faint gold. He was speaking to an older woman whose body glowed the same red as her face. She had deep wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, dark brown hair had streaks of white that matched the flower tucked behind her ear. She wore a red dress but had no shoes.

            “I’ve had enough of this,” the man snapped, glaring at the woman, “I don’t care what you or your family thinks, it’s our duty to help any creature in need.”

            “Not humans!” the woman hissed, voice cracking and squeaking, “They have only destroyed our lands and hurt our people!”       

            “We haven’t had any problems with humans in years, Madam Alyssum,” the man said, pressing his fingers against his temples, “This one was trying to go back to where he came from when he got injured.”

            Madam Alyssum opened her mouth to screech again, voice catching in her throat when Ryan grunted as he sat up. The man looked over at Ryan and smiled brightly. He snapped his fingers and the woman slid out of the room with slurred words, the door slamming itself behind her.

            “You’re awake!” the man said, rushing over to Ryan’s side, “How do you feel?”  
            Ryan frowned, leaning away from the man and looking him up and down. Like the woman, he had nothing on his feet but he wasn’t wearing a red dress. He wore a bright green robe with a belt made out of some golden material around his waist. A stone sword hung from the belt, matching the smooth stone shoulder pads and arm guards he was wearing. His skin was the same tan as the woman’s although his hair was short and black. His brown eyes were soft and kind as he looked over Ryan’s leg.

            “Uh,” Ryan said, flinching when the man’s fingers ghosted over his leg, “I-uh, what?”  
            The man snorted and grinned at him. “Are you feeling okay?” he said again, picking Ryan’s leg up.

            Ryan tensed, waiting for pain but nothing came. The man’s fingers were feather light, barely there. “I-uh. I’m okay,” he croaked, something fluttering in the corner of his eye. He looked at the man’s back, squinting at he just made out the flutter of nearly completely translucent wings.

            “Good, you’re not in any pain?” the man said, gently setting Ryan’s leg down.

            “N-no,” Ryan said, eyes snapping back up to the man’s, “I-where am I? Who are you?”

            The man chuckled and carefully sat on the edge of the bed. He offered Ryan his right hand. “My name is Ray, I’m the King of these lands,” he said as Ryan hesitantly took Ray’s hand in a firm shake, “You’re in my castle.”

            Ryan blinked slowly at Ray for a long moment. “I-I’m Ryan? Wait, uh, King of the lands? Castle?” he said slowly, glancing out the window, “Trees?”

            Ray snorted and shook his head. “You’re in the kingdom of-“ he said the last word in a language Ryan couldn’t begin to pronounce, grinning when Ryan stared at him with wide eyes, “Or in your language, Pine.”

            Ryan opened and closed his mouth a few times before his brow furrowed. “The Kingdom of Pine?”

            “Right,” Ray nodded, gesturing out the window, “Every forest has a kingdom of fairies that protect the environment. I am the King of this forest. I brought you here because you were injured in our woods.”

            “Fairies?” Ryan croaked, eyeing Ray’s wings again, “You’re a fairy?”

            “Yep,” Ray said with a bright smile. He frowned when Ryan dropped his head into his hands. “What’s wrong?”

            “I’ve gone insane,” Ryan mumbled to himself, pulling at his hair, “How hard did I smack my head into the ground?”

            “You didn’t,” Ray said slowly, carefully pulling Ryan’s hands from his hair, “I saw you fall, you didn’t hit your head.”

            Ryan frowned, letting Ray set his hands in his lap. “This can’t be real,” he pressed, flinching when Ray’s golden glow wrapped around his hand and sent tingles up his arm, “What are you doing?”

            “Proving this isn’t a hallucination,” Ray said, closing his eyes.

            Ryan frowned and opened his mouth to protest when his words caught in his throat. Images danced in his head for a moment, showing him Geoff, Jack, and the ranger. He could hear Geoff screaming as Jack struggled to calm him. The ranger was removing a snake from Geoff’s shoulders.

            The images faded and Ryan blinked for a few moments. “What the hell,” he breathed, eyes refocusing on Ray.

            “I showed you what your friends are doing right now,” Ray said letting Ryan’s hand go, “It’s only been a few hours since I brought you here, by the way.”

            Ryan’s brow furrowed again and he shook his head. “I-that was pretty easy to guess,” he mumbled, rubbing his face.

            Ray frowned, shoulders drooping. “I-I don’t know how to prove that this is real to you,” he said after a moment, “I mean, if being the size of a small bug and sitting in a castle made out of a tree isn’t enough, I don’t know what will be.”

            “Size of a bug?” Ryan said slowly, shoulders bunching up near his ears.

            “Of course, how else would you fit in a tree?” Ray snorted, shaking his head, “Maybe you did hit your head and I didn’t notice.” He reached up and ran his fingers through Ryan’s hair, pressing his fingers against his skull.

            “Wait,” Ryan said, pushing his hand away, “How the fuck did I get here?”

            “I had some vines carry you,” Ray said with a shrug, putting his hands in his lap again.

            Ryan blinked at him then dropped his head into his hands again. Ray chuckled as Ryan groaned. “My head hurts,” Ryan mumbled.

            “I’m sorry this is hard for you to believe,” Ray said, standing from the bed and walking over to the window, “You’re taking it better than other humans though.”

            “Oh great,” Ryan snorted, looking up and frowning at Ray’s back, “Wait, other humans?”

            “Yeah, others who had gotten lost or hurt,” Ray said, smiling at Ryan over his shoulder, “I would guide them back to that large building or help them with their injuries. They always screamed when they saw me or the kingdom.”

            “Don’t blame them,” Ryan snorted, looking around the room, “This place is crazy.”

            Ray rolled his eyes and looked out the window again. “I know!” he said, spinning around and running back over to Ryan, “I’ll show you your friends in real time.”

            Ryan frowned as Ray pulled him to his good foot, pulling his arm around his shoulders. “Why don’t you just leave me with them?” he said, hopping as Ray wrapped his arm around his waist.

            “My magic is healing your leg, if I was to leave you, your leg might never heal,” Ray said, pulling Ryan toward the door.

            “Seriously?” Ryan groaned, leaning heavily against Ray, “Fucking great,” he mumbled.

            Ray chuckled and once they were past the threshold, their feet left the ground. Ryan gasped and clung tightly to Ray as they floated through the castle. Ray smirked as Ryan looked at the ground in shocked fear.

            “We’re flying,” Ryan gasped, wobbling in the air.

            “Of course, I’m the only fairy that can fly,” Ray said, waving his hand to make the main doors of the castle open.

            “What? Why?” Ryan said, watching the doors close themselves behind him. He looked forward again and flinched away from the guards in stone armor staring him down.

            “Because I am the King,” Ray said, flying through the gate and out into the kingdom.

            “That explains nothing,” Ryan mumbled, looking around at trees in wonder. Six trees were planted around the middle tree they had left. Tiny people were everywhere and every tree had around a hundred buildings carved into the wood. Everything had a faint glow, little blinking lights of every color besides gold.

            “It’s beautiful,” Ryan breathed, looking down at a branch as they passed over head. Fairies dressed in varying colors, minus green, of robes and dresses kneeled as they passed. A few in red, sneered but bowed anyway.

            Ray chuckled and glided them through the trees. Ryan watched the Kingdom’s glow fade  over his shoulder before looking up at Ray. He studied the confident smile on his face before shaking his head and looking ahead.

            “So, why did you have vines carry me if you could just float me?” Ryan said after a moment of silence.

            “I didn’t want to damage your leg more than it already was,” Ray said, flying lower to the ground, “Besides, I can only fly us both now because you’re partially holding yourself up.”

            Ryan frowned and looked down at his feet. There was nothing below him, yet his foot felt like there was something there. He shook his head. “Damn this is a good hallucination,” he mumbled, trying to shift himself upright.

            Ray laughed and yanked them in a different direction. “Keep telling yourself that.”

            “How do you know where they are, anyway?” Ryan said, watching the trees past, “Everything looks the same.”

            “I know where everything is in my forest,” Ray said, slipping around trees, “I can feel it.”

            “Of course you can,” Ryan snorted, jumping when a squeal shot through the woods. He felt his eyes twitch as he sighed. “That would be Geoff.”

            Ray laughed and slowed as they entered a small clearing. Ryan shook his head as he watched Geoff try to climb a tree to get away from the small shoe string snake that had been scaring him the entire trip.

            “That little guy likes him,” Ray said, nodding toward the snake.

            “Of course it does.” Ryan said as the ranger picked the snake up and placed the little guy into the tree line.

            “I can’t get ahold of Ryan!” Jack said as he came out of the tent. He was frowning down at his phone.

            Ryan reached down and patted his pocket where his phone made a square outline. “I’ll have to go look for him,” the ranger sighed, helping Geoff down from the tree.

            Ryan scowled, glaring at the ranger. “Hey, don’t fucking act like its Ryan’s fault,” Geoff snapped once he was on the ground again, “You’re the one who thought he would keep up.”

            “He purposefully left you in the woods?” Ray said, frowning as the ranger sputtered for a second.

            “Yeah, fucker has hated me since he saw me,” Ryan snorted, shaking his head at the three men. Ray frowned and floated further down. “What are you doing?”

            “Letting them know that you’re okay,” Ray said, gently setting them down onto one of the logs resting around the blackened fire pit.

            “They can’t hear us when we’re this small,” Ryan said, hissing as Ray helped him to sit, jostling his leg.

            “That’s not a problem,” Ray said, looking around before pointing at Geoff, “What’s his name?”

            “That’s Geoff,” Ryan said, raising an eyebrow as Ray took a deep breath. He jumped with the other humans when Ray suddenly belted Geoff’s name in a shout that sounded like a normal sized person. He pressed his hands against his ears, gritting his teeth and glaring up at Ray. “What the fuck?”

            Ray smirked at Ryan, puffing his chest up as he crossed his arms. Ryan rolled his eyes and looked up at his friends who were looking around in confusion. Jack was clutching his phone to his chest as Geoff hugged the tree. The ranger had his walking stick raised and ready to use as a club.

            Ray frowned at them and took another deep breath. “Wait!” Ryan snapped, shaking his head when Ray gave him a confused look, “Why don’t you just fly up and get their attention that way?”

            Ray blinked at Ryan then shrugged. “Alright,” he said, flying up and right into Geoff’s face. He, of course, squealed and swatted at Ray, falling to the ground before he could catch himself on the tree.

            Ryan held his head in his hands as Ray hovered over Geoff laughing. “What the fuck,” Geoff gasped, scrambling up right.

            Ray waved before flying back over to Ryan. Geoff, Jack, and the ranger slowly edged over to the stump, looking down at Ray and Ryan.

            Ryan smiled sheepishly up at them, waving. “Is there a reason you couldn’t make us bigger for this?” he mumbled to Ray as Jack dropped to his knees to peek at them over the edge of the log.

            Ray opened his mouth then his brow furrowed. He closed his mouth and shrugged. “I have no idea,” he said before looking up at Geoff and the ranger.

            Ryan followed his gaze, eyes widening as the ranger raised his stick over his head. “Fuck!” he gasped, grabbing Ray’s waist and yanking him to his other side as the stick came down.

            “Is that Ryan?” Jack’s voice boomed as Ryan groaned in pain. His weight was on his broken leg.

            Ray scrambled up and rolled Ryan back over, glaring up at the ranger. “What the fuck?” he shout up at them, the ranger stumbling back as Geoff leaned down and squinted at them.

            “Holy shit, that _is_ Ryan,” Geoff gasped, dropping to his knees next to Jack.

            Ryan clenched his jaw as he sat up. “Please, make us bigger,” Ryan groaned, holding his knee as the pain went up his spine in waves.

            “Too late now,” Ray said, waving awkwardly toward Geoff and Jack.

            “How are you so small?” Jack said, sounding like he was shooting, making Ray and Ryan wince and covered their ears with their hands.

            “What the fuck happened?” Geoff said, frowning at Ryan, hesitantly reaching out before pulling his hand back.

            Ryan frowned and ran his hand through his hair. “Can you guys even hear me?” he shouted, leaning back in surprise when his friends both winced and backed away.

            “They can hear you,” Ray said with a smirk and nod.

            “Got that,” Ryan snorted before taking a deep breath, “After that asshole let me get lost, I tried to get back to the info center and broke my leg falling down the cliff face.”

            Geoff and Jack frowned down at Ryan, glancing at each other, before shooting the ranger a glare. The range glared back, still holding his walking stick up to crush them.

            “I found him and brought him to my kingdom to heal his leg!” Ray shouted, puffing up his chest and staring the ranger down.

            Geoff and Jack looked back at them, Jack hesitantly reaching a finger out to poke Ray. “What are you?” he said, yelping when Ray slapped his finger.

            “I’m the King of the forest,” Ray huffed, folding his arms.

            “He’s a fairy,” Ryan said, grinning when Geoff and Jack gave him similar looks, “Yeah, I know.”

            “What does that mean?” Ray said, shooting Ryan a glare.

            “It means they think they’re dreaming too,” Ryan said, giving Ray a sheepish grin.    “Well we can’t all be hallucinating,” Geoff sighed, stroking his beard.

            “Are you going to be okay?” Jack said, frowning at Ryan.

            “Probably?” Ryan said, looking up at Ray.

            “He’ll be fine as long as he stays with me until his leg heals. If he leaves now, his leg might never heal,” Ray said, glancing down at Ryan before looking up at Geoff and Jack again, “Therefore, he will be staying in my kingdom.”

            “What?” Jack gasped as Geoff shook his head.

            “Why can’t you two just stay with us? How long will it take for him to heal?” Geoff said as the ranger edged closer, breathing hard.

            “I have to rule my kingdom. I am the king,” Ray snorted, shaking his head.

            “It’ll take a while to heal a broken leg, Geoff,” Ryan said, narrowing his eyes at the ranger, “And I feel like he’ll crush us if we stay.”

            Jack and Geoff shot the ranger glares. The ranger leaned back and frowned at them. “What?” he huffed, hitting his head with his walking stick trying to fold his arms.

            “I’ll be alright, we just wanted to let you know that I’m not dead or anything,” Ryan said, tugging on Ray’s hand.

            “We’re not leaving without you,” Gavin said frowning as Ray helped Ryan to his good foot.

            “That’s fine, just don’t worry. I’m _fine_ ,” Ryan said, leaning against Ray.

            “I’m going to worry,” Geoff said frowning down at them, “You’re fucking tiny!”

            “I assure you, I will keep him safe,” Ray said, wrapping his arms around Ryan’s waist again, “He will heal within the week.”

            Jack and Geoff still tried to argue for them to stay but Ray insisted that they needed to return. Ryan watched Geoff and Jack disappear into the distance behind them. “I hope they don’t do anything dumb,” he sighed before looking ahead of them.

            “If they try to find us, it will not end well for them” Ray said, shaking his head.

            “I figured,” Ryan snorted, glancing at Ray’s sword, “You have people in stone armor.”

            “The soldiers?” Ray said, grinning at Ryan, “They’re very good at what they do.”

            “That does not surprise me,” Ryan said, shaking his head. He tensed as they flew back into the cluster of trees.

            Ray chuckled and brought them back to the castle. They glided over the floor as Ray brought Ryan to a different room. “This is a different room?” Ryan said as Ray set him on the bed.

            “I had you in my room before,” Ray said, snapping his fingers. Ryan’s backpack dropped to the floor beside the bed. “You can stay here until you’re healed.”

            Ryan sighed and nodded, leaning back on the bed. “So, now what do I do?” he said, kicking his good leg and tapping his thumbs together.

            Ray frowned and then shrugged. “I have no idea,” he said, sitting down next to Ryan, “You should probably rest.”

            Ryan flopped back onto the bed, wincing when he accidentally bumped his bad leg. “I’m pretty awake, I don’t sleep easily.”

            “I can give you a sleep powder,” Ray said, summoning a vile into his hands.

            “Sleep what now?” Ryan said, narrowing his eyes at the vile.

            “It’s a powder that will help you to sleep,” Ray snorted with a small shrug.

            Ryan rolled his eyes and shook his head, letting his head drop back onto the bed. “I don’t like sleeping aids,” he said, staring up at the grains in the ceiling.

            Ray frowned and the vile disappeared. “Oh,” he said slowly, looking down at Ryan, “Well, do you have any questions for me?”

            Ryan pursed his lips then sat up again. “Yeah, actually,” he said slowly, “What was with that woman earlier? The one you were talking to when I woke up.”

            “Madam Alyssum?” Ray said, wrinkling his nose, “She is one of the red, a crabby old woman who wants one of her family members to be royalty.”

            “One of the red?” Ryan said slowly, furrowing his brow, “That’s another thing, I didn’t see anyone glow gold like you do, or wear green.”

            “Everyone is color coded by origin,” Ray said, tugging at his robes, “Green is my family color, the color of royalty. The glow is specific to each fairy, but gold is the only color held by royalty which is why I was chosen to rule over my siblings.”

            “So this Madam Alyssum’s color is red?” Ryan said slowly, working through Ray’s words, “And her glow is also red?”

            “Oh, no, her glow is more white because she’s old,” Ray said with a smirk, “Our glows change color with our emotions.”

            “So they’re like auras?” Ryan said, smiling when Ray nodded, “Huh, weird. So, how do you know English?”

            “Other humans who have come to our home over the years,” Ray said with a small shrug, “We used magic to learn the language quicker, especially with all of the changes that happen over the years.”

            Ryan shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “That’s actually pretty cool,” he said before looking over at Ray again, “So you were chosen to be king because you glow gold?”

            “Basically,” Ray said before sighing down at his lap, “I didn’t think I deserved the position but the rule is final.”

            Ryan pursed his lips and looked out at the tree buildings. “I haven’t interacted with anyone accept for you but in my experience, people don’t bow to someone they don’t respect.”

            Ray laughed lightly and shook his head. “The bowing is tradition. I don’t like it, makes me feel more important than I actually am and I wouldn’t have a kingdom to rule if it wasn’t for the people.”

            “Why don’t you change the tradition then?” Ryan said, shifting back on the bed and pulling his leg onto the bed.

            “I’ve been trying,” Ray snorted, standing and helping Ryan rest his leg on the bed, “Tradition is hard to change.”

            “Alright, fair enough,” Ryan said, chuckling when Ray snorted, “What?”

            Ray shook his head and pressed his hand against Ryan’s forehead. “Nothing, get some rest,” he said, smiling as Ryan opened his mouth to protest but his eyes suddenly drooped and he dropped back onto the bed fast asleep.

            Ray took a deep breath and headed for the door, ignoring how light-headed he felt. “At least it wasn’t a sleep aid,” he mumbled, closing the door behind him.

           

* * *

 

            Ryan hobbled through the castle, two twigs tucked under his arms. One of Ray’s servants had brought him diner the night before and then breakfast the next morning. He honestly didn’t think acorns and insect would taste as good as they did.

            Before the servant had left, he asked if they had something similar to crutches laying around. Surprisingly, she knew exactly what he was talking about and brought him the twigs. He had finally lost the servant. She had insisted that she stay close by incase he needed anything. Ryan managed to lose her passing by some people in purple robes who caught her attention.

            Now, he was regretting leaving her behind. He was completely lost. The castle was a vast and confusing system. Every hallway looked the same as the last.

            “It’s like the fucking trees all over again,” Ryan mumbled as he turned another corner to find yet another long hallway just like all of the rest. He couldn’t even use his phone now, the battery had died and the tree didn’t have electricity.

            Sighing, he hobbled down the hall, the click of his crutches echoing off the walls. Everything was lined in gold, the legs of insects hung from the ceiling with balls of light hovering over the feet.

            At the end of the hallway was a door which Ryan hoped lead to a room he recognized. Pushing the door open his eyes widened when he found himself faced with a multitude of fairies. A gasp raced through the room as they all stared at Ryan.

            Swallowing hard, he smiled sheepishly and waved awkwardly. “Uh, hi?” he croaked, wincing when a younger woman in a red dress and glowing pink started to storm toward him. She looked like a younger version of Madam Alyssum.

            “This, human is still here?!” the woman sneered, looking Ryan up and down.

            Ryan frowned at the woman before glancing at the other fairies who shifted nervously. “Well, your King was kind enough to let me say while my leg healed.”

            “Our foolish king should have left you!” the woman snapped, folding her arms. Her pink glow starting to darken to red at the edges.

            Ryan scowled as another wave of whispers raced through the crowd. Many of the other fairies were glaring at the woman as others nodded in agreement. “He assured me that it was the job of all fairies to care for those in need, no matter who they are. I’m sure if you were in trouble, he would not abandon you either.”

            The woman tensed and narrowed her eyes at Ryan as a chuckle echoed in the room. Her glow turned completely red in an instant, face turning the same shade. “You insolent human!” she screeched, “You don’t know anything of our people!”

            Ryan winced at how high pitch her voice was. “I know enough to know you’re embarrassed,” he said, smirking when her jaw dropped.

            “Ryan?”

            Ryan looked over his shoulder and smiled at Ray who rushed down the hall with a worried frown. “Oh, hey,” he said, shuffling to the side, “I’m sorry if I stepped into something, I got lost.”

            “You’re very good at that,” Ray snorted, squeezing Ryan’s shoulder before looking at their audience and then at the woman, “Ah, Lady Alyssum. Good to see you again.”

            The woman glared at Ray before turning and storming away. Ray sighed and shook his head. “Wow,” Ryan said under his breath, just loud enough for Ray to heard, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone storm away as huffy as she just did.”

            Ray snorted but quickly composed himself, shooting Ryan a smile. “I’m sorry for being late,” he said, looking at the fairies again, “We shall start the meeting now.”

            The fairies all nodded, a few giving Ryan kind smiles before following the crowd toward a long table. “I should go,” Ryan said, stumbling when Ray caught his arm and pulled him into the room.

            “You _were_ interested in how our world works,” Ray said, waving a servant over with a smirk.

            Ryan snorted as Ray sent the servant to get him a chair. Shaking his head, he followed Ray to the head of the table. He didn’t sit at the table, his chair being placed just behind Ray’s chair. He set the crutches down and watched Ray speak with every fairy at the table. They all spoke in English accept for the few that didn’t seem able to. A few had problems with their work, a man in a black robe spoke of the conditions of their farms.

            “They’re dry, my King,” the man said, a girl sitting next to him glaring at the table. She pulled at her black robes, “I don’t know what to do without water.”

            Ray frowned looking at the girl. Smiling gently, he leaned forward and spoke in their language. The girl looked up with wide eyes. The man frowned but didn’t speak as Ray spoke to the girl. After a moment, her eyes hardened and she stood. Her voice shook as she spoke, but her words seemed clear to Ryan.

            “Ah, well. It seems your daughter has already come up with a solution,” Ray said to the man once the girl stopped talking, smiling politely at them, “You will build the irrigation system she created, I will help anyway I can.”

            The man nodded, dropping to his seat. Ryan frowned at how he glared at his daughter who shared a smile with Ray. He kept an eye on them for the rest of the meeting. The father refused to acknowledge his daughter. She sat with her head bowed.

            “If anyone has any questions, please step forward. The rest of you are dismissed,” Ray said after the group voted on a few changes to laws, standing from his chair.

            Ryan scrambled for his crutches as the rest of the room filled with talking. Glancing away from the father and daughter for only a moment, Ryan hobbled over to Ray. “Those two,” he said when Ray looked at him, “Will she be alright?”

            Ray frowned and followed Ryan’s gaze to the two in black. He frowned as the father started yelling at the girl. “It seems not,” he mumbled, slipping past Ryan and going over to the two.

            Ryan hobbled after him, staying just behind Ray as he and the father spoke rapidly in their language. The girl was shaking, her robes balled up in her hands. “Uh, hey,” Ryan said slowly, smiling at the girl when she jumped and looked at him, “Are you alright?”

            The girl frowned and looked between Ryan and the floor for a moment, mouth hanging open. “I-I am fine,” she pushed out, voice trembling more than before.

            Ryan pursed his lips then smiled. “I-uh I’m an engineer,” he said frowning when the girl gave him a confused look, “That’s a person who makes things like irrigation systems. What’s this idea of yours?”

            The girl’s eyes light up and she started speaking rapidly in both English and the silky, bell-like fairy language at the same time.

             Ryan managed to catch enough of the girl’s words to understand generally what she was saying. As Ray and the father spoke, he and the girl discussed her ideas, Ryan even suggested modifications to the design.

            They jumped when the father yelled something and stormed away. Ryan frowned as Ray gently touched his shoulder and caught the daughter’s hand. “How about you stay for now?” Ray said to the girl, “You and Ryan seem to have a lot to talk about.”

            The girl nodded slowly, looking at Ray with wide eyes. Ryan smiled at Ray as he squeezed his arm and went off to speak to other fairies. By the time the girl left, Ryan had taught her how to make blueprints and they had completed a set for the irrigation system.

            Ray smiled at Ryan as he leaned back in the chair he was sitting in. “Thank you,” Ray said, sitting down in the chair the girl had been sitting in.

            “No problem,” Ryan shrugged smiling sheepishly, “She’s a bright kid.”   

            Ray nodded and waved something to a few servants. “She is and we all know it. Her father is more traditional though. And, now quite a bit of the heads of families are much happier I allowed you to stay.”

            “Really?” Ryan snorted, shaking his head, “Glad I said something then.”

            Ray nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Do you think her idea will work? We’ve been struggling with drought for some time now.”

            “It’ll work great,” Ryan said, patting Ryan’s shoulder, “Magic does make a few things more possible. It’ll keep your farms watered perfectly, easy to turn on and off if it rains.”

            Ray sighed in relief, slumping down into the chair. “Wonderful,” he breathed, laughing lightly.

            Ryan grinned and jumped when a plate of food was set down in front of him. “Oh, thank you,” he said to the servant who bowed before leaving.

            Ray chuckled and immediately dug into his own meal. Ryan snorted and shook his head. He glanced around the large room as he ate. “I bet you could benefit from an engineering guild or something,” he said after a moment.

            “A what?” Ray said, frowning up at Ryan. His eyes glazed over for a moment before he sat up slightly. “Engineer, as in, people who invent things?”     

            “Something like that, yeah,” Ryan said, fork hanging from his lips, “And electricity, you could probably use that for a lot, make transportation and shit easier.”

            Ray hummed, eating slower. Ryan glanced at him, watching his eyes glass over. Suddenly, Ray smiled. “I think I know what you can do while you’re here.”

            “I regret saying anything,” Ryan mumbled as he stared at the stack of papers Ray had shoved into his hands. They were stiff and heavy, thicker than normal paper.

            Ray laughed and waved a hand, the stone desk in Ryan’s room dragging itself over to the bed. “Too late now,” he said, smirking at Ryan, “This is the paper work needed to create a new guild.”

            Ryan dropped the pile onto the table and took the small twig Ray handed him. He placed a small stone well filled with a black liquid on the table. “Shouldn’t someone who belongs to this world do this?” he mumbled pulling the first page down to look over the words.

            “Probably,” Ray said with a shrug, “That’s why I’m here.”

            “Why can’t you do this?” Ryan said, frowning at some of the questions.

            “Because it was your idea and you’re the one who’s bored,” Ray said, pointing to the first question, “This is basically asking for who you are.”

            Ryan sighed and hesitantly started to write. “Doing paper work isn’t exactly exciting, you know.”

            “Why do you think I’m not doing it?” Ray said, smirking when Ryan shot him a glare.

            As Ryan worked away at the papers, Ray slowly made his way through his own stack of paperwork. Ray had to explain every question Ryan came to that made little to no sense to him, enjoying his noises of annoyance.

            By the time they went to bed, Ryan was only finished with half of the pile. In the morning, before Ryan could even pick up the pen with his aching hand, Ray burst into the room and thrust his crutches into his hands.

            “We’re exploring the kingdom today,” Ray said with a bright smile.

            Ryan blinked down at the crutches, glancing at the desk before snorting and pulling himself onto his foot. “Fuck yes,” he said, smiling as Ray laughed.

            Ray flew them through the kingdom, explaining that three of the trees were used for public buildings while the other three were for private ones. Fairies were constantly moving between each tree. Every time they landed, the fairies would bow. Ryan could see Ray struggling not to say anything.

            Ryan frowned as they landed near the farms. Everyone started to bow but Ryan cleared his throat. “So uh, what’s with the bowing?” he said to one of the woman in a pink robe he recognized from the meeting.

            Ray and the other fairies looked at him in confusion. “It is tradition,” she said slowly, narrowing her eyes at Ryan.

            “But, why?” Ryan said, avoiding the look Ray was giving him, “He is your equal, no? That’s how your government works?”

            The woman opened her mouth but then stopped herself, brow furrowing. A few of the others went to speak but stopped themselves. Ryan glanced at Ray and gave him a sheepish smile. “I-it is tradition,” Ray said carefully, smiling at Ryan, “But one I don’t think we need anymore, as long as the people agree.”

            The fairies around them glanced at each other before smiling at Ray. “No, I don’t think we need it anymore,” the woman said, bowing her head before herding the others away.

            “Thank you,” Ray said, elbowing Ryan in the side, “I can’t believe you got away with that.”

            “Eh, it’s because I’m not from around here,” Ryan said, smiling at Ray before looking around. He squinted when he spotted someone familiar before grinning. “Anne!” he said as he hobbled over to the girl.

            Ray chuckled as Anne and Ryan started speaking rapidly. Anne’s English was already getting better but the terminology they were using was lost on Ray.

            “My King,” Anne’s father spat, walking over to them and bowing.

            Ray sighed and frowned at the man. Ryan shook his head as they started speaking. Anne shifted nervously for a moment before grabbing the sleeve of the green shirt Ray had given Ryan and tugged him toward the farms.

            Ryan smiled at her as she talked about the irrigation system. Ray joined them before long. “We should move on,” Ray said, jaw clenched and eyes dark, “It was good to see you Anne.”

            Anne’s shoulders dropped before she smiled up at them. “Good to see you as well, My King, Ryan,” she said with a bow.

            “See you later, remember what I said about the guild,” Ryan said to Anne, ruffling her dark brown hair.

            Ray floated them away from the farm, Ryan frowning behind them. “Her dad?” he said, looking at Ray.

            Ray sighed and shook his head. “He is traditional,” he spat, scowling.

            Ryan watch Ray for a moment before wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “It’ll be alright,” he said, smiling at Ray when he looked at him.

            Ray stared at Ryan for a moment before his cheeks pinked and his golden glow was tinted the same color. “I think I’m going to have the law changed.”

            “Oh?” Ryan said, not letting go of Ray’s shoulders.

            “It’s time to change tradition,” he said, puffing up his chest.

 

* * *

 

            “Fucking finally!” Ryan groaned, dropping back on the bed. The paper work for the guide had taken two more days. By now, he could put all of his weight on his foot, although it hurt like hell for him to do so.

            Ray laughed and smiled down at Ryan. “Good job,” he said, patting Ryan’s head, “Now try to do this for the rest of your life.”

            “No thank you,” Ryan snorted, sitting up again, “So that’s done, now what?”

            “You bring it up at the next meeting,” Ray said, stacking the papers Ryan had completed up.

            “I guess you’re not going to do that either?” Ryan groaned, pouting as Ray’s magic moved the desk back under the window.

            “If I did it, it wouldn’t go over nearly as well,” Ray said, smirking at Ryan, “Sides, you know more than I do.”

            Ryan sighed, rubbing his face. “Okay fine, when’s the next meeting?”

            “Next week, same time as the last one,” Ray said carefully, not looking at Ryan.

            Ryan frowned and looked down at his leg. “But, you said my leg should be healed before then?”

            “That’s only a day over a week,” Ray said, putting the papers back in the order he had handed them to Ryan.

            Ryan frowned and looked down at his leg. At the rate he was healing, he should be safe to leave by tomorrow. Glancing up at Ray, he pressed his lips into a thin line.

            “Ray-“ Ryan said, pausing when Ray’s entire body went tense, “I-I have enjoyed being here and talking with you but, I need to go home.”

            “And you will,” Ray said, voice tense. He turned and smiled tightly at Ryan. “I just, would like you to see this through before you go.”

            Ryan watched as Ray’s glow started to turn blue around the edges. Ray continued to smile, despite his eyes turning red. “I’m human, Ray,” Ryan said softly, pushing himself to his feet, “I can’t stay here.”

            Ray frowned then scowled. “I know,” he snapped, shoulders bunching up near his ears, “I just-it’s nice having someone who doesn’t treat me any different from anyone else.”

            Ryan sighed and hobbled over to Ray. “I’m sorry,” Ryan said, reaching out to ruffle Ray’s hair like he had many times already. He stopped himself and let his hand fall to his side.

            Ray frowned then looked up at Ryan, eyes wide and grinning. “You can’t _stay_ but you can visit!” Ryan frowned, opening his mouth, but Ray kept going. “You could spend your, uh, weekends! You can spend your weekends here and your weeks in the human world.”

            Ryan’s shoulders drooped and he laughed lightly, catching Ray’s hands as he gestured. “We both know that leaving will get to be too hard each time we do it,” he said softly, letting their hands hang between them.

            Ray frowned up at Ryan, clinging to his hands. “So? I-don’t want to lose a real friend,” he said, looking down.

            Ryan sighed as Ray’s glow turned completely blue. He let his hands go and hugged him tightly. “I don’t want to lose you either,” he mumbled, chest tightening. He didn’t want to lose Ray for other reasons, not just because they had become friends.

            “I always do this to myself,” Ray sniffed as he hugged Ryan back, curling his hands into his shirt, “I always bring a human here and then get too close.”

            Ryan sighed and rested his cheek on top of Ray’s head. “I’m your favorite though, right?” he said after a moment, smiling when Ray’s laughs shook against him.

            “Of course,” Ray said, leaning away to smile up at Ryan, “I didn’t fall in love with the others.”

            Ryan tensed and looked at Ray with wide eyes. Ray frowned, then his own words processed in his head. Ray’s jaw dropped as Ryan’s cheeks turned the same color of pink Ray’s glow was turning.

            “I-oh gods,” Ray breathed, trying to pull away, “I-didn’t-God damn it mouth!”

            Ryan blinked, holding Ray tighter as he tried to move away. Slowly smiling, Ryan tugged him closer and kissed his forehead. “Maybe visiting on weekends won’t be too bad,” he said softly as Ray froze then relaxed against him, “It’s not like I do anything else with my time.”

            Ray laughed against him, pressing his face against his chest and holding on as tightly as he could. “It’ll be so hard to let you leave,” he mumbled, smiling as Ryan ran his fingers through his hair.

            “We can work something out,” Ryan said, squeezing Ray gently before leaning back to cup his cheeks, “Okay?”

            “Okay,” Ray nodded, cheeks pink, “I just can’t believe I said that though.”

            “I can,” Ryan snorted, grinning as Ray slapped his shoulder, “Have you heard the shit that comes out of your mouth when you think no one is listening?”

            “You’re not supposed to hear that,” Ray laughed, smiling as Ryan pressed a kiss against his cheek.

            “I know, doesn’t make it less funny,” Ryan said, laughing when Ray rolled his eyes.

            “Asshole,” Ray snorted, resting his hands on Ryan’s shoulder.

            “Shit comes out of that, yes,” Ryan said, grinning when Ray groaned, “What?”

            “You’re awful and ridiculous,” Ray said, pulling away but catching Ryan’s hand.

            “And you’re choosing to be stuck with me,” Ryan said, shaking his head, “Which one of us is ridiculous now?”

            “Still you,” Ray said, pulling Ryan form the room and into the hall. Ryan laughed, limping after Ray as quickly as he could.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan frowned down at the notes in his hand as he followed after Ray. “Is this really a good idea?” he said, looking up at Ray.

            “Of course,” Ray snorted, turning down the hallways Ryan still got lost in.

            Ryan sighed and glared down at his notes. He hated talking to one person, much less a crowd. Shaking his head, he took a few deep breaths before walking fast enough to walk beside Ray. “How do you look confident all of the time?” he said after a moment.

            Ray blinked up at Ryan for a moment before shrugging. “I just do?” he said frowning when Ryan snorted, “What? I just do what I have to.”     

            “That’s worse,” Ryan said, eyeing the meeting room doors, “That means you’re a natural.”

            Ray rolled his eyes, waving his hand. The doors opened on their own, the loud crowd of fairies waiting for them.

            Once they entered the hall, everyone went to their seats, a few eyeing Ryan curiously. They all thought he would be gone by now. They were more confused when the seat he sat in at the last meeting was brought up to the table beside Ray’s.

            As they all sat, Ryan took a deep breath and tried to relax. He faintly listened to Ray speak to the crowd, tensing when he heard that he would be beginning the requests.

            Ray smirked as he sat and Ryan stood, glaring back. Taking a shaky breath, he looked at the assembly, looking at him curiously. Clearing his throat, he launched into an explanation of the engineering guild.

            Quite a few fairies looked interested while many others looked equally as confused. A few fairies translated Ryan’s words for others. When he finished, he had more questions than he expected. Once everyone seemed satisfied with his responses, he looked at Ray who stood once again.

            “Shall we vote?” Ray said, grinning when there were a few nods and mumbled agreements.

            An overwhelming amount of fairies voted for the creation of the guild. The only ones voting no were the ones who were extreme traditionalists. Ryan dropped into his seat in shock as Ray declared the guild created. He thought they wouldn’t want to hear anything a human had to say.

            Ray smiled, reaching over and squeezing his hand as the woman next to him started to speak. Ryan smiled shakily back, turning back to the woman. He only half listened to the rest of the meeting. He wasn’t allowed to vote on anything so he didn’t bother listening.

            When everyone had spoken, Ray stood again. “Now for voting on laws,” he said, letting fairies stand and bring forth proposed changes.

            Now Ryan wasn’t listening for a different reason. He watched Ray grow more and more tense as each law was discussed then voted upon. Reaching over, he squeezed his hand and gave him a soft smile when he looked at him.

            Ray smiled back, closed his eyes, and then took a deep breath. Slightly more relaxed, he kept a hold of Ryan’s hand until he needed to stand.

            “I have a proposal,” Ray said, curling his shaking hands into fists, “I move to remove the tradition of bowing.”

            A series of murmurs rolled through the crowd, Lady and Madam Alyssum rolled their eyes. “I second the motion,” the woman in pink from the farm said, smiling at Ray as she stood, “Our King is our equal.”

            There was silence for a moment before Anne stood. “I third the motion,” she said, voice shaking. She ignored her father pulling on her arm.

            “Very well, three motions means we have to vote,” Ray said, holding his head high, “Those in favor?”

            There was a pause long enough for Ryan’s stomach to sink but then hands began to raise. Ray waited a moment for every hand to raise before counting them. “Those opposed?” he said, biting his lip.

            Ryan smiled as significantly less hands were raised. Those who didn’t vote just shook their heads as a red tint started to fill the room. “The motion is passed,” Ray said, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them, smiling relaxed.

            “This is an outrage!” Madam Alyssum snarled, chair falling back as she stood, “You cannot change tradition!”

            “A guild for engineers!” Lady Alyssum snapped, standing as well, “Such a human-“ she paused as her mother looked at her. Both of them looked at Ryan. “You!”

            “Ah shit,” Ryan mumbled, slowly standing.

            “Sit down!” Ray snarled at the two woman, putting his hand out in front of Ryan to keep him from standing.

            “It’s that human’s fault! He’s corrupting our ways!” Madam Alyssum roared.

            “You know Our King has always been one for change,” the woman in pink snapped at them, standing again as well.

            A few other fairies stood, hands on stone weapons. Ryan kept his eyes on the Alyssums and Anne’s father. The man’s hands were shaking as he stared hard at the table.

            Ryan watched his glow go from green to blood red as the others argued. Ray slammed his hand against the table to demand order just as the man stood and something bright flashed in his hands. Ryan didn’t have time to figure out what the flash was before his chair toppled over and he smacked his head against the ground.

            His vision swam and the shouting turned distance as he blinked. Ray appeared above him, mouthing his name and holding his chest. Ryan frowned as he tilted his head up. Blood pumped from a hole in his chest.

            “That’s a lot of blood,” he said, at least, that what he heard in his head. Ray’s glow was getting to be blinding as he squinted up at him. He wheezed and coughed, something wet clinging to his skin and making breathing harder.

            Anne appeared beside Ray as well as a few guards as his vision turned black.

 

* * *

 

            Ray watched Ryan jerk awake hours later. He had been working on processing the paperwork for the new guild. His stone desk was moved next to the bed so he could be there when Ryan woke. He felt himself beginning to nod off when Ryan groaned then gasped awake.

            He was at his side in an instant, helping him upright as he coughed. He felt his eyes begin to burn as Ryan held his chest.

            “What happened?” Ryan rasped, squinting at Ray. His fingers pressed into his chest, searching for the hole that had been there.

            “You were hit with a shard of magic,” Ray said softly, grabbing a wooden cup from the nightstand, “You nearly died.” He pulled Ryan’s hands from his chest.

            Ryan frowned as Ray pressed the half-full cup to his shaking hands. “Shit,” he mumbled before taking slow sips from the water.

            Ray slowly sat on the edge of the bed, watching him drink. “I-we had to make you a fairy,” he blurted.

            Ryan nearly choked on the water in his mouth, spitting back into the cup. “What?!” he croaked, coughing hard.

            Ray winced and rubbed his back, magic oozing into his skin to sooth his throat. “You were going to die unless we gave up a new life,” he said slowly, taking the cup from Ryan, “There was nothing else we could have done, there was a hole in your chest.”

            Ryan frowned at Ray before looking down at himself. A faint golden glow clung to his skin. “I’m gold,” he said, running his fingers through the light.

            Ray smiled and placed his hand on top of Ryan’s. “The only way to turn a human into a fairy is for the King to give one of his wings to the human.”

            Ryan tensed and looked up at Ray with wide eyes. He stared at his sad smile for a moment before his hands stretched behind him, brushing the soft, thin wing. “I-you gave me-“

            “Of course I did,” Ray snorted, shaking his head at Ryan, “I couldn’t let you die.”

            Ryan stared at Ray for a moment before puffing a laugh. “I-uh I guess we won’t have to figure out how I’m going to be in the human world now.”

            “I’m so sorry, Ryan,” Ray rushed out, looking at his lap, “I know you didn’t-you have friends and probably family-”       

            “Ray!” Ryan said, taking his hands and squeezing them tightly, “It’s alright. If I knew it was possible for you to make me a fairy I would have suggested it. I don’t have much going for me in the human world. Besides, I figured this would happen at some point if I stayed here as a human.”

            Ray looked up at Ryan, tears pooling in his eyes. He sniffed, before tackling Ryan in a tight hug. Ryan chuckled and wrapped his arms tightly around Ray. They were at peace for a moment before Ryan tensed. “Oh shit, how long was I out? Are Geoff and Jack still camping?”

            Ray blinked at Ryan before laughing. “No, they left. I had to tell them what happened once you were stable. They insisted that they be allowed to come see you here once you were better.”

            Ryan relaxed and smiled sheepishly. “Oh thank god, I did not want to listen to them bitch that I left them hanging.”

            Ray chuckled and kissed Ryan’s cheek. “You didn’t,” he said before curling against Ryan’s chest.

            Ryan blinked down at Ray before smiling softly. He wrapped his arms around him, resting his chin on top of his head. “Guess I get to be here to run that guild now.”

            “Yep,” Ray said, smiling against Ryan’s chest. Ryan smiled and held Ray tighter. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and pushed all of his questions and worries aside for a moment. He was alive and happy, he didn’t need much else right then.


	14. Wisdom Teeth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan finally gets his wisdom teeth removed when they start giving him trouble. Poor Ray has to deal with his inability to take medicine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!

            Ray sighed as the battery light on his DS started to blink impatiently at him. Quickly saving his game and snapping the pink DS shut, he stuffed the device into his hoodie pocket and slumped even more in his seat.

            Everything was tinted gold. The chairs lining golden walls had dark, cherry wood legs, and the cushions had a stripped red and gold pattern. The glass coffee table in the middle of the room had gold feet. The carpet was a deep red with small flower shaped, gold designs inches apart.

            The reception desk was made out of a golden wood with a glass top. Beyond the low lighting coming from the fucking chandler handing in the waiting room, clean white walls and floors glowed behind the desk.

            The woman running the desks were in either shapely black dresses or dark blue scrubs. Rows of short filing cabinets lined behind the desk. Occasionally the phone would ring and one of the women would answer.

            Ray sighed and looked up at the TV in the corner of the waiting room. There was no sound, but the subtitles scrolled at the bottom, about three sentences behind. All Ray could figure was that a white, straight couple was looking for a home and neither wanted to budge on their own wants for the house.

            Shaking his head, he glanced at the other parents and patients littered around the room. Had he been alone, he would have felt out of place in a fancy as fuck waiting room, but the girl sitting two chairs away from him was dripping sweat in her soccer uniform.

            He head the creak of the door to the actual operation rooms and looked over. A boy with a short undercut and a heave hoodie wobbled into the room with the help of his parents. A white band was wrapped around his head, pressing probably cold lumps to his swelled cheeks. His brown eyes were glazed over, mouth hanging open. Ray wrinkled his nose when the bits of white he could see in the boy’s mouth weren’t his teeth but pieces of gauze.

            Unable to walk straight, the boy’s mother guided him through the room, holding onto his pale hand tightly. He watched them go up the few stairs to the main hallway, the boy making a sound of annoyance that made his mother laugh quietly. His father came to help him up the stairs after receiving a parking pass from one of the woman at the desk.

            When the door closed behind them, Ray turned and looked over at the other kids. The girl in the soccer uniform had turned whiter than a sheet, gaze hard on the door the boy had disappeared through. The only other patient was another young man. He was sweating, looking sick to his stomach.

            Ray shook his head and watched the house hunters again, trying not to smile when both kids’ parents tried to sooth their frayed nerves.

            About twenty minutes later, a nurse poked her head into the waiting room. “Is someone here with Ryan Haywood?” she said, eyes snapping to Ray when he stood. She smiled cheerfully at him before waving for him to follow her.

            “Is he done?” Ray said, following the nurse through a maze of operation rooms.

            “Yep! He did really well,” the nurse said, lightly rapping on one of the doors.

            Ray smiled then cringed when the door opened and Ryan was looking up at him with wide, wet eyes. He was trembling, paler than he really should be. Ray rushed forward and took the shaking hand behind held out to him.

            “Hey Rye,” he said softly, running his fingers through Ryan’s hair around that stupid band holding ice packs to his cheeks.

            “Panicking is normal,” the dentist said, pulling his gloves off and tossing them into a hole in the counter. X-rays were hanging in front of a light above the counter, showing Ryan’s horribly crooked wisdom teeth.

            “Yeah, he doesn’t handle medicine well,” Ray said, smiling down at Ryan.

            The dentist nodded, pulling the face mask from around his neck. “There wasn’t any problems, but we had to break all four of them. I’m surprised no one made him come in sooner.”

            “He’s stubborn,” Ray sighed, squeezing Ryan’s hand as he leaned his head against his stomach. His breath was stilted and he was still shaking something horrible.

            The dentist snorted and held a piece of paper and a bag out to Ray. “This tells you everything you need to know about his care and there’s extra gauze for you” he said as Ray took the paper and bag, trying to ignore the soft whimper from Ryan when his fingers left his hair, “The medicine you need has already been sent to the pharmacy.”

            “Thanks doc, are we good to go?” Ray said, awkwardly folding the paper with one hand. He ended up with a ball, shoving the instructions and gauze into his pocket anyway.

            “Yep, just call if anything strange happens,” the dentist said before being whisked from the room by another nurse, “See you in a week.”

            Ray sighed and smiled at Ryan. “Alright, big guy,” Ray said softly, pulling on Ryan’s arm, “Time to go.”

            The nurse giggled as Ryan got to his wobbling feet, leaning heavily on Ray. “Do you need any help?” she said, holding her hands out as Ryan leaned forward almost too far.

            “We’ll be fine,” Ray chuckled, getting Ryan out the door. His blue eyes were glazed over and his mouth hung open, the little bits of gauze shoved into the corners of his mouth were bright red.

            Ray got the parking pass from one of the woman before helping Ryan through the waiting room. The boy was gone, but the soccer girl watched them in horror, jaw dropped and eyes massive. She clutched the arm rest so tightly her knuckles turned white.

            Not really wanting to rush Ryan but also not wanting to make the girl more nervous, Ray got Ryan through the waiting room and up the stairs as quickly as he could. “How’re you feeling, Rye?” Ray said as they entered the buildings main hall.

            Ryan grunted and whimpered, clinging tightly to Ray. Shaking his head, Ray chuckled and got them through the posh building made out of marble floors and cherry wood walls. He scowled when they got out the doors and rain was pounding the ground.

            “Alright big guy,” Ray said, shuffling them along the edge of the building, “We have more stairs.”

            Ryan sighed through his nose, a few tears making their way down his face. Ray felt his chest burn, but soldiered on, basically carrying Ryan down the stairs to the parking garage. He knew how much Ryan hated doctors and surgeries. The only reason he even got his wisdom teeth pulled this time was because Ray had insisted that he have it done because of how much pain he was in.

            Ryan dropped into the passenger seat of the car like a doll, a very heavy, tall doll. His eyes were half open and pink spit clung to his lips. Ray set a small red bucket in his lap, making sure the plastic bag inside was open and ready.

            Before Ray could move, Ryan gagged and his fingers flew up to his mouth. Ray caught his hand and rubbed his back. “What’s wrong?” he said, as Ryan gagged and his tongue pushed at the gauze awkwardly.

            Ryan’s chest started to heave, eyes swelling and turning red as he looked at Ray. “Shhhhh, it’s alright,” Ray said, kissing Ryan’s temple before letting his hand go, “You’re okay.”

            Ryan whimpered again, catching Ray’s hand and clinging to his fingers. Sighing, Ray smiled at Ray and ran his fingers through his hair until he calmed. Carefully slipping away and running around to the driver’s side, Ray got into the car and got them out of the parking garage.

            Ryan wasn’t completely there for the majority of the ride. Occasionally he would gag, trying to move the gauze with his tongue, before giving up and sticking his fingers into his mouth. Ray made sure he didn’t pull the gauze out, driving to the pharmacy and going through the drive through.

            The instant they got home, Ray got Ryan to lay down on their reclining arm chair before yanking the paper out. Skimming the first few lines, he opened the bag of gauze and grabbed scissors from the junk drawer in the kitchen.

            He nearly gagged when Ryan spat the gauze in his mouth out into the bucket before carefully stuffing the new cut pieces into place. The little balls of cloth were oozing thick blood, not a speck of white on them. Swallowing bile, he made Ryan lay back and doze off into sleep.

            Ray felt bad waking Ryan, but every fifteen minutes he had to take the gauze out and put new ones in. Every thirty the ice packs needed to come off or be reapplied. Then he had to gag down a penicillin pill with few spoon fulls of yogurt. About two hours since coming home, the gauze was barely bloody when Ryan removed the wads and Ray tried to get Ryan to eat some more.

            By that point, most of the feeling was returning to Ryan. He still looked dazed but no longer on the verge of panic. He would poke at his jaw and cheeks, as feeling returned to him. Ray say beside Ryan, running his fingers through his hair and trying to get yogurt and chicken broth down his throat.

            When the numbing agent had completely worn off, Ray got Ryan to swallow an Advil before being dragged upstairs and onto their bed. He propped Ryan up with pillows all around him.

            “Hey there, big guy,” Ray said softly, smiling when Ryan gave him a tired smile. Neither had said much since getting home, Ryan just didn’t want to and Ray wasn’t sure what he could say that would make this better. “Try to get some sleep, okay? If you need anything, let me know.”  

            Ryan nodded and held his hands out to Ray. Smiling gently, Ray took his hand and stood close to the bed as he pulled out his phone and set an alarm for four in the morning when Ryan had to take the penicillin pill again.

            Turning back to Ryan, he ran his fingers through his hair and kissed his temple. “You alright?” he said as Ryan squeezed his hand.

            Ryan nodded and tugged at Ray’s arm, awkwardly patting the spot beside him. Chuckling, Ray climbed onto their bed and let Ryan snuggle as close to him as he could without agitating his poor jaw.

            Ryan dropped off suddenly with loud, wet snores. Ray snorted and carefully set Ryan more up right before settling down on the bed next to him.

            At four in the god damn morning, the alarm went off and they both groaned. Ray groggily sat up and grabbed the pill cutter, long pill rattling inside, and a glass of water. A pudding cup with a spoon resting on top soon followed once the glass was in Ryan’s hands.

            Ryan blinked tiredly at Ray, heavy bags already under his eyes. He hadn’t moved much since going to bed but Ray doubted he was sleeping well.

            Ray positioned the pill against the strips of plastic. Making sure everything was in line, he gently closed the lid until the thin blade rested against the pile. Gritting his teeth, he snapped the cutter closed, the pill breaking in two.

            Ryan glared at the two pills Ray dropped into his hands before taking a careful swallow of water. Ray smiled at him as he gagged down the first pill and then the second, downing the water when the pill didn’t go down right away.

            Ryan sluggishly ate the pudding, eyes closed and wobbling slightly. Ray chuckled and made Ryan sit back against the head board. Once Ryan had finished, Ray made sure he went back to sleep before resetting the alarm for the next pill.

            The next morning, Ryan lounged on the arm chair, going in and out of sleep for most of the day, ice packs pressed against his swelled cheeks. When he was awake, he looked miserable. Ray sighed, watching Ryan sleep. Even in his sleep he looked like hell. His hair was a mess and his nose was wrinkled and his mouth hung open because trying to close it was too painful.

            Sighing, Ray left him to sleep, rereading the instructions once again. The next day, Ryan was in a better mood. Talking wasn’t as big of a task as before. “This sucks,” Ryan grumbled as Ray handed him the next pill.

            “Suck it up,” Ray chuckled, handing Ryan a full glass of water, “You need to take these.”

            Ryan pouted, but swallowed the pill. A shiver shot through him, nose wrinkling. Ray rolled his eyes and took the glass back for a refill. When he came back into the living room, Ryan was poking at his jaw again, slowly opening and closing his jaw with his brows furrowed.

            “Okay, what are you doing?” Ray said, smiling as Ryan jumped and smiled sheepishly up at him.

            “My jaw’s stiff,” Ryan sighed, wincing when his fingers brushed where his wisdom teeth had been.

            “Does it hurt?” Ray said, frowning as he set the water on the side table.

            “No, it’s just stiff,” Ryan shrugged, dropping his hands into his lap.

            Sighing, Ray grabbed a note pad from the table. A list of the medicine Ryan had to take and when was lined up on the paper. “Well, you have another hour before you can take another Advil.”

            Ryan groaned, head dropping back against the fluffy head rest of the chair. “Great,” he grumbled, smiling when Ray’s thin fingers combed through his hair.

            “You’ll live,” Ray snorted, leaning down to kiss Ryan’s forehead, “You really weren’t lying about being a baby about this.”  
            “I told you!” Ryan huffed, leaning into Ray’s hand.

            “Which is ridiculous because of the sheer amount of accidents you’ve been in,” Ray said, gently putting some order to Ryan’s hair.

            “Hey, I came out of most of those without a scratch,” Ryan grunted, shifting in his seat. He was moving his jaw again, nose wrinkling.

            “Even the time with the tornado?” Ray said, raising an amused eyebrow at Ryan shrugged.

            “I broke an arm that time but I didn’t need more than a few Advil,” Ryan said, cracking his eyes open and wrapping his arm lazily around Ray’s waist, “And sides, that was an arm. This is my face.”

            Ray sorted and shook his head. “You’re such a light weight,” he said, leaning down to press a soft kiss to the top of Ryan’s head, “Not even those fucking horse pills they gave you could knock me out.”

            “Lucky you,” Ryan snorted, leaning up to press his forehead against Ray’s cheek, “I’m not taking those, by the way.”

            “Oh fuck no,” Ray laughed, staying bent over to nuzzle his nose into Ryan’s hair, “That shit would kill you. The smaller pills would probably be fine though.”

            Ryan wrinkled his nose and shook his head slightly. “Nah, I’ll stick with the Advil.” Chuckling, Ray wrapped his arms around his shoulders and kissed his temple.

            When they returned to the dentist’s, Ryan was a bit more chipper than before. Ray stayed in the corner of the room as they put a white bib on him. The nurse handed the dentist a syringe just within Ryan’s peripherals.

            Ray leaned off the wall as Ryan went ridged and his eyes went wide. “It’s just for water,” the nurse said quickly, smiling at Ryan.

            “See?” the dentist said, pressing on the plunger and squirting water onto the floor.

            Ryan relaxed, but he eyed the dentist nervously. Ray chuckled, leaning back against the wall as the dentist cleaned the food out of the small holes in the back of Ryan’s mouth. “Everything looks good,” the dentist said, sitting back and dropping the syringe back into the bag he had ripped it out of.

            He handed Ryan the package before squeezing his shoulder and disappearing. Ray shook his head as Ryan glared after him.

            “This sucks _more,_ ” Ryan slurred, fingers pulling at his mouth, the syringe in his non-dominate hand along with a flashlight that was more shining into his eyes in the bathroom mirror.

            Ray pressed his lips into a thin line to keep from laughing as Ryan pressed on the plunger and water squirted out of his mouth, making him jump and coating the mirror. “You’ve gotta do it, though.”

            Ryan shot Ray a half-hearted glare before wiping the mirror off with a paper towel. “It just doesn’t want to come out,” Ryan sighed, dipping the tip of the syringe into a glass of water and pulling the water into the body.

            “Here, let me help,” Ray said, holding his hand out. Ryan begrudgingly handed the syringe and flash light over, pulling his mouth more open. “You know, if you had gotten this done when you were supposed to, you wouldn’t be doing this now.”

            Ryan snorted as Ray squirted the syringe, getting the food out of the hole. “Yeah, yeah,” Ryan grumbled once Ray was finished and he spat the water into the sink, “Says the guy who never got wisdom teeth.”

            “Hell yeah,” Ray said with a crooked grin. He laughed when Ryan shot him a glare before wrapping his arms around him and tickling his sides. “Ryan!”

            Ryan grinned and kept up his attack until Ray’s phone alarm went off. Groaning, he dropped his forehead against Ray’s shoulder as he pulled his phone out.

            “Time for your medicine,” Ray smirked, panting hard and face pink.

            “I don’t wanna,” Ryan groaned, letting go of Ray anyway.

            About an hour later, Ray slapped one of the smaller pain pills they had been given into Ryan’s hand. “Take this before you hurt yourself,” he said, shaking his head as Ryan looked up at him, fingers still prodding his jaw.

            Begrudgingly, Ryan swallowed the pill. Less than thirty minutes later, Ryan’s eyes blew wide and he gripped the small, white folding table that held his computer while he was sitting on the arm chair tightly. “Woah,” he mumbled.

            “Rye? What’s wrong?” Ray said, shutting his DS with a worried frown.

            Ryan blinked a few times, pushing the table away and leaning back. “Don’t feel good,” he mumbled, closing his eyes with a furrowed brow.

            “All of a sudden?” Ray said, standing quickly, “Think you’re going to puke?”

            Ryan frowned then shrugged slowly. “I don’t know,” he said, hands shaking slightly.

            Ray ran off to get the red bucket, putting a plastic bag into the pal before setting it on Ryan’s lap. He sat beside him, running his fingers through his hair. “You’re such a light weight,” he mumbled, smiling when Ryan snorted.

            “Should have just given me an Advil,” Ryan said, gently curling his fingers around the lip of the bucket.

            He didn’t puke, but he did talk. Ray had a hard time keeping up at times. He doubted Ryan even knew he what he was saying, letting a few word flubs slip by him without even a grunt of annoyance. A few hours later, the pain medication wore off and Ryan was able to stand without his vision swimming or diving for the bucket.

            “Fucking thing gave you a high,” Ray snorted, helping Ryan up the stairs.

            “If that’s what being high is like, I really, really never want to actually be high,” Ryan said, leaning slightly against Ray.

            Ray laughed and got him into bed, watching him drop off as soon as his head hit the pillow.

            Within the next few days, Ryan no longer needed any Advil and the holes were closing nicely. “Again?” Ray said, frowning at how white Ryan’s face had gotten.

            “Yeah,” Ryan croaked, tilting his head back against the back of the arm chair and closing his eyes.

            Sighing, Ray stood and sat on the arm of the chair, letting Ryan lean against him as the nausea worked through him. He had looked up everything, the dizziness could be shock or sinus pressure or the swelling in his cheeks. The nausea, well, Ray wasn’t sure.

            Spotting the bottle of penicillin out of the corner of his eye, Ray stretched and grabbed the bottle, Ryan had just taken a pill after all. He quickly skimmed through the symptoms. “You’re allergic to penicillin.”

            “My tongue isn’t a rug,” Ryan snorted, brow furrowing.

            “No, but there are other symptoms,” Ray said, setting the bottle down, “I’m going to call the doctor.”

            “Why?” Ryan said, cracking one eye open and watching Ray pull his phone out.

            “To see if you really need to keep take them,” Ray said, slipping from the room, poking at his phone.

            Thankfully, Ryan could stop the penicillin since his mouth was healing so well. All was left was the dizziness. “Woah, careful!” Ray gasped as Ryan stumbled after standing from the dinner table, his plate in hand. He rushed to his side, taking the plate from his hands.

            “God damnit!” Ryan hissed, steading himself against Ray, “I hate this!”

            “I know,” Ray said softly, setting the plate down, “I know.”

            Ryan scowled as Ray made him sit and finished cleaning the table himself. Once the table was clear and the dishes were done, Ray walked over to Ryan with a frown. His head was bowed, fingers curled tightly into his pants.

            Sighing, Ray kneeled down in front of Ryan and took his hands. “Hey, look at me,” he said softly, leaning closer to see Ryan’s face.

            Ryan’s eyes were red and puffy as tears welled in them but refused to fall. He was biting his lip, snot dripping from his nose. Ray smiled at him and squeezed his hands. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”

            Ryan nodded and clung tightly to Ray’s hands as a shuddered gasp rippled through him. Ryan sucked in air rapidly, gagging on sobs. Ray quickly started counting, smiling as Ryan struggled to count along.

            Once Ryan finally stopped hyperventilating, Ray pulled him to their room and made him lay down. He wrapped himself around Ryan’s head, carding his fingers through his hair as Ryan pressed into his chest, a few extra tears seeping into his t-shirt.

            Ray pressed kisses to his hair as Ryan held onto his waist as tightly as he could. Slowly, Ryan loosened his grip. Ryan sniffed, blinking tiredly as Ray reached for the tissue box behind them on his nightstand.

            “Okay?” Ray said softly as he handed the tissue to Ryan.

            “Yeah,” Ryan croaked, blowing his nose before drying his face, “Sorry.”

            “It’s okay,” Ray said, kissing Ryan’s forehead, “You’re stressed and there are weird holes in your face. It’s alright.”

            Ryan laughed lightly, snuggling back into Ray. Wrinkling his nose, Ray pinched a corner of Ryan’s tissue with his nails and blindly tossed the wad over the side of the bed. He doubted he managed to get the tissue in the bucket still sitting beside their bed for when Ryan woke up nauseous but that didn’t matter at the moment.

            After a week of lessening dizziness, Ryan woke up to a still world and cheered. Ray groaned as Ryan shook him awake with a bright smile. “It’s finally _over_!” he said, hugging Ray tightly.

            Ray laughed hoarsely, hugging Ryan back. “That’s great, Rye,” he croaked, eyes falling closed, “In celebration, we should sleep in.”

            Ryan chuckled and kissed Ray’s cheek before laying Ray down and slipping from the bed. “You can, Rose,” he said, running his fingers through Ray’s hair, “You deserve it for putting up with my shit.”

            “And I’d do it all again,” Ray slurred, snuggling into his pillow, “I love you, and stuff.”

            Ryan snorted and kissed Ray’s temple. “I stuff you too,” he mumbled, laughing as Ray pushed his face away gently.


	15. Scarlet Lily

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a royal wedding on the way, Lady and Madam Alyssum hatch a plan to take over the monarchy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!

            “I’m not supposed to do anything, am I?” Ryan mumbled, flanked by the head guard and head hunter.

            “You just need to be there, my King,” the guard said, smiling at Ryan.

            “Words of encouragement would be nice,” the hunter snorted, sneering at Ryan.

            Ryan sighed and run his hand through his hair. “I’m not exactly fluent, yet.”

            “Just our King’s presence should suffice,” the guard nearly hissed, glaring at the hunter, “They will understand.”

            Ryan sighed as the hunter glared back. His bark armor thunked out of time with the click with the guard’s new steel armor.  He rubbed his temples as they continued to glare at each other. He didn’t really understand why he had to be there for the hunter’s first take off.

            When they came to the hunter’s guild, the chirps of the birds they had tamed started to become deafening. Ryan tried not to wince as they came upon hundreds of hunters mounted on their song birds.

            The birds had been Ryan’s suggestion. The lands around the kingdom were hunted dry by them. There were no bugs that were safe to capture or eat left. They couldn’t get further out into the kingdom without being able to return quickly so Ryan suggested tamed birds. Both the guards and hunters were using them now. Capturing the birds had been, an experience. They, thankfully, hadn’t lost anyone. Taming them was easier. They bonded easily with different fairies.

            Ryan looked over the hunters and their birds. Bright colors filled the guild. He smiled and nodded his head toward the few hunters he had interacted with before. He had helped a few of them capture their birds while Ray helped others.

            “I wish our true King was here,” the hunter mumbled under his breath before jogging ahead of them. Sadly, Ray had to meet with the medical guild for their training. If he wasn’t there, Ryan wished he was here too.

            Ryan sighed as the guard sneered after the hunter. The fairies against the changes Ryan was bringing often called Ray the true King while he was begrudgingly their king. Shaking his head, he followed after the hunter.

            He jumped, like he always did, when the hunter’s pet spider crawled up the wall to them. The hunter pulled himself up onto his spider and glared down at them. “We’ll be moving out in a moment,” he said before he spurred his spider down toward the others.

            Ryan shuddered and grimaced. “I hate that thing,” he grumbled, shaking his head.

            “It’s only a spider,” the guard chuckled, patting Ryan’s back.

            “You don’t understand Gladiolus,” Ryan said, shivering as the spider scurried around between birds, “I hate spiders.”

            Gladiolus rolled his eyes and pushed Ryan closer to the birds gently. “You’ll get over it, besides, Nasturium has trained his spider well.”

            Ryan shuddered again and walked through the ranks. Hunters bowed their heads and smiled as Ryan passed. Many of them loved their new mounts.

            There was the sound of a booming church bell which Ryan’s mind took a moment to recognize as the hunter battle cry before all of the birds took off. The gusts from the bird’s wings made himself and Gladiolus stumble under the pressure.

            The hunters took off into sky, rounded the kingdom before splitting off into different directions. Ryan watched them go with a smile.

            “Thank you for your presence, my King,” Nasturium said, coming over to them on his spider.

            “Good luck, Nasturium,” Ryan said, leaning away from the spider. The arachnid moved his jaws and stomped his feet.

            Gladiolus saluted Nasturium before leading Ryan away. “Now, you were requested at the weaver guild,” Gladiolus said.

            “Did one of their machines break again?” Ryan said, folding his hands behind his back. The weaver guild was a new branch of the clothing guild. The hunters used to collect silk from silkworms and give what they gathered to the clothing guild. They would make crude dresses and robes to sell. Ryan had suggested just bringing the silkworms to the guild and creating weaving machines to help male better clothes.

            “Not this time, they have something they wanted to show you,” Gladiolus said, trying not to smile, but the corner of his lips kept twitching up and his eyes were bright.

            “Alright,” Ryan chuckled, following Gladiolus along the bridge to the right tree. Above them, a metal cord carried a wooden carriage of fairies to a different tree. Ryan smiled up at one of his engineer’s work. Ryan had Geoff and Jack bring him piles of engineering books with them when they came to visit him periodically throughout the three years he had been there. His engineers devoured as much information as they could from his books.

            Putting up the trolley systems had been easy when some of his engineers could make metal bend to their will or change the metal into another type all together. When the guild was made, all of the fairies not within the magic guild were lined up and asked to interact with metal and tools. A surprising amount had a magical affinity with metal. Ray told Ryan that was a good thing, magic meant engineering was destined to be a part of their society and acceptable.

            The weavers building was one of the larger guilds. They needed the space for the silkworms the hunters were relieved they didn’t need to harvest anymore and the simple, wooden machines Ryan had made for them.

            Once they entered the building, Ryan was swarmed by the weavers. He looked back at Gladiolus who just smiled and waved as he was dragged away. He was brought into their storage room where extra mannequins lined the wall. In the center were two mannequins wearing beautiful suits. The small suit was in Ray’s color while the bigger one was in the rust color Ryan was giving as his family color.

            His eyes widened as the weavers pushed him toward the suits. “We wanted to give you something from your world for your wedding, our King,” the head weaver said with a slight bow.

            Ryan ran his fingers over the silk cloth, smiling at the white shirts and the ties patterned in both his and Ray’s color. The green suit has a rose pinned to the label, Ray’s family name. “They’re beautiful,” he said, turning toward the weavers, “Thank you.”

            The weavers all beamed at him. One produced a bouquet of miniature flowers. There were various plants; asparagus foliage, red clover, dandelion, hollyhock, scarlet lily, bumblebee orchid, and peony. “You have yet to choose a flower,” the weaver said sheepishly, “We want to place the right one on your jacket.”

            Ryan blinked at the flowers, looking over his choices. He had been presented all of these flowers before because they weren’t taken by other families and because of their meaning. He sighed and chose the scarlet lily. “This one,” he said, holding the flower out to the weaver.

            The weaver smiled brightly at him before passing the bouquet to another weaver. He carefully cut the flowers stem before attaching the lily to the label of Ryan’s jacket. “Thank you,” Ryan said after they had all admired the suits.

            “Of course, our King,” the head weaver said, “Do you want to keep this from our other King for now?”  
            Ryan smiled and nodded. “Yes, please. It’ll be a surprise,” he said, waving to them as he left. “You knew,” he said when he met Gladiolus outside the guild.

            “I did,” Gladiolus said, waving for Ryan to follow him, “I have to know the reason for each visit we do.”

            Ryan chuckled and shook his head. “Of course, now where?” he said as Gladiolus headed for the trolley station.

            “Well, that was your last appointment for the day,” Gladiolus said, nodding to the operator and stepping onto the trolley with Ryan behind him, “So it’s time to head for the guild.”

            Ryan nodded and sat next to Gladiolus. He smiled at the young girl in burnt orange sitting across from him. She was hugging a bear made out of petals and cotton. She smiled shyly back, hugging her bear tighter.

            Ryan chuckled and looked ahead of them. The pulley system hauling their trolley up was silent and nearly perfect. Their green energy engines had no problem pulling the heavy carriages. Solar panels made to look like leafs were attached to the canopy of the trees. Wires imbedded into the bark trailed down to homes. Every home had electricity.

            Now they were working on farming machines and better, stronger weapons for hunters and guards. He tried to introduce plastics for TVs and cheaper production but he was met with looks of horror. Apparently plastic absorbed their magic and made them weak. There were to be no plastics. Thankfully enough, they could figure out a way to work around them.

            The engineering guild had to be built completely new. Builders carved the building, labs, and shops above the weaver’s and clothing guild. The trolley they were in looped from the weaver guild up to the engineering one. At the first stop, quite a few fairies got out at the residential tree, including the girl with her bear. Once the trolley closed, the carriage was pulled further up.

            Only Ryan and Gladiolus were left on the carriage. Only engineers went to the guild at the moment. The stores were empty until they made more handheld devices for casual use.

            Once off the trolley, they started toward the building. Engineers were scrambling around the guild, teams building tractors and irrigation systems with rain catchers. Anne waved at them from one of the foreman’s platform. She and two other fairies were directly under Ryan as the heads of different projects.

            Ryan waved back, wincing when he heard a familiar squawk. “Good luck, my King,” Gladiolus said, patting Ryan’s shoulder with a chuckle.

            “Thanks,” Ryan snorted, waving to Gladiolus before following the squawks to his office where his other two leaders were arguing. Well, Michael was yelling, Gavin was trying to stay alive while laughing.

            “Balsamine! Carnation!” Ryan snapped, glaring at the fairies. Both fairies tensed and separated.

            Sighing, Ryan rubbed his face before shaking his head. “What is it this time?”

            “Gavin fucked with my build!” Michael snarled, glaring at the fairy in yellow.

            “Micoo! I did not!” Gavin whined, tugging on the sleeve of Michael’s light purple shirt.

            Ryan sighed as they started bickering again. “Was the damage permanent?” he said, separating them with a flick of his wrist. Gavin pouted on the other side of the room from Michael.

            “No, I already fucking fixed it,” Michael grumbled, folding his arms. His face was slowly going from bright red to pink.

            “Then why are you here?” Ryan said as he stepped into his office and dropped into his desk chair.

            “We wanted to know when the wedding will be!” Gavin chirped, running into the room and leaned his hands on his desk.

            Michael rolled his eyes but trailed after Gavin, giving Ryan a curious look. Ryan snorted and rolled his eyes. “In a month,” he said, smiling when Gavin squealed.

            “About damn time,” Michael mumbled, smiling brightly at Ryan, “It’s not like you two haven’t been dating forever.”

            “It’s only been three years,” Ryan snorted, leaning back when Gavin tried to hug him over the desk.

            “Three years too long,” Gavin said, pouting, “My parents got married after the second date!”

            “Mine were married the instant they met,” Michael said with a nod.

            Ryan sighed and kept back from Gavin who would pounce at any opportunity to hug him. “I’m afraid these things work differently for humans. We don’t instantly know the other is the one when we meet them.”

            “I bet Ray knew,” Gavin said, leaning back from the desk and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

            “Maybe he did, he never told me,” Ryan said, sighing as Gavin gave him that wide eyed kicked puppy look, “But we’re happy now and marrying in a month, so please, get back to work.”

            “Yes sir,” Michael laughed, mocking a salute before slipping from the office.

            Gavin lingered back, biting his lip and staring hard at Ryan’s desk. “Something the matter Gavin?” Ryan said, raising an eyebrow.

            “Nothing, it’s just-“ Gavin said, smiling before looking up at Ryan, “Thanks. I wasn’t supposed to become anything, ya know? And then you gave me someplace. I never thanked you.”

            Ryan blinked at Gavin, leaning back. He knew Gavin had a different flower name to the rest of his family. Many called him the yellow carnation, a name reserved for fairies who couldn’t help society. His families name was Dandelion. “It’s- your welcome Gavin,” Ryan said, biting his lip.

            Gavin nodded and headed for the door. Ryan opened his mouth then snapped his jaw shut. “Wait, Gavin?” he said, standing from his desk.

            Gavin turned and frowned at Ryan. “What?” he said, eyes widening when Ryan waved his hand in the air and a scarlet lily appeared on his palm.

            “I, uh. I choose a flower,” Ryan said, rounding the desk and holding the flower out to Gavin, “If you want to, you can take the name as well, if you want.”

            Gavin stared at Ryan with his jaw dropped for a moment before taking the lily with shaking hands. Ryan smiled as Gavin pinned the flower to his chest before tackling Ryan in a tight hug. “BROTHER!” he shouted in Ryan’s ear as he stumbled back.

            Ryan winced and laughed, patting Gavin’s shoulder. “Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled, hugging Gavin back. He ruffled his messy blond hair when he finally let go. “Now get to work.”

            Gavin sniffed, eyes red and smile bright. He nodded at Ryan before running out the door. Ryan chuckled and shook his head, turning back toward his desk. Before he could get far, Gavin poked his head back into Ryan’s office. “Does this mean I can wear your color too?”

            Ryan blinked at Gavin before laughing and nodding. “That’s exactly what it means,” he said.

            Gavin squealed, hugging Ryan again, before running from the room. Shaking his head, Ryan sat heavily in his chair. “Now I’ll never get rid of the idiot,” he mumbled before grabbing the stack of project requests.

           

* * *

 

            Ray landed in front of the engineering guild softly. His lone wing fluttered slightly as he headed for the building. He smiled and nodded to each worker as he passed. They were all hard at work.

            Michael and Gavin spotted him from their perches above their teams and raced down to meet him. They crashed into him with tight hugs. Ray laughed and hugged them back, glad they weren’t overly formal with him like other fairies.

            They were the first engineers to emerge along with Anne. They worked closely with Ryan in the castle to set up the guild and organize their growing work force. All three of them became close to both Ray and Ryan although Michael and Gavin became two of Ray’s best friends.

            “Gavin? What’s this?” Ray said, pointing to the scarlet lily pinned to his chest.

            Gavin beamed as Michael rolled his eyes. “Here we go,” Michael sighed, “he’s been going on about this all day.”

            Gavin shot Michael a glare before smiling at Ray again. “It’s Ryan’s flower! I’m a Scarlet Lily now!”

            Ray leaned back slightly, frozen for a moment. “Ryan gave you his flower?”

            “Yeah!” Gavin said before gasping and hugging Ray tightly, “We’re going to be brother-in-law’s!”

            Ray slowly reached up and hugged Gavin back, looking at Michael. He smiled and nodded, shoving his hands into the pockets of the heavy apron he was wearing.

            Slowly smiling, Ray hugged Gavin tighter. “That’s amazing, Vav!” he said, laughing as Gavin picked him up and spun him a bit.

            Once he was on the ground again, he waved as Michael and Gavin went back to work. Ray smiled and made a scarlet lily appear in his hands. He smiled down at the bright red flower. Six petals were pealed back for red stamen to rise from the middle. The flower suited Ryan well.

            He tucked the lily next to his rose in his shirt before climbing up to Ryan’s office. He was leaning over his desk, pouring over piles of paperwork. Smiling, he floated in silently and sat on the edge of the desk. Ryan didn’t even glance up.

            “High-souled aspirations,” he said, making Ryan jump, “It suits you and Gavin.”

            Ryan blinked tiredly at Ray for a moment before smiling sheepishly. “You think? I just like the color,” Ryan said, pushing himself away from his desk and holding his arms out.

            “Well, that suits you too,” Ray said, slipping from the desk to Ryan’s lap. He pressed his nose into his neck as Ryan wrapped his arms tightly around him.

            Ryan chuckled and rested his cheek on top of Ray’s head. “How are the doctors?”

            “Learning, slowly,” Ray sighed, snuggling closer. Originally doctors and medicine were done by the magic guild, however, Ryan found that there were some things magic could not heal. While the magic guild still handled potions, the medical guild handled research and more complicated health problems. They had a mixture of magic and machines.

            “Good, glad to hear it,” Ryan said, reaching up to run his fingers through Ray’s short, black hair.

            “How was the hunter’s first flight?” Ray said, smiling against Ryan’s neck.

            “Went off without a hitch, I think Nasturium is starting to warm up to me. He kept his spider a respectable distance away this time,” Ryan said, smiling when Ray laughed.

            “That’s more than what he does for anyone else. He is glad you got rid of the need for his hunters to gather silk,” Ray said, sitting up slightly to kiss Ryan’s cheek.

            “At least I’ve got that going for me,” Ryan said, pressing a kiss to Ray’s forehead before he settled back down again. He remembered the suits and smiled to himself. He couldn’t wait for Ray to see them. They were far from the traditional robes fairies normally wore to their wedding. He’d love them just for that.

            Plenty of traditions had been tossed away with progress. At first, many fairies were upset by the change, however, as they saw how the changes helped them, they stopped caring. After a year, many fairies began to like Ryan more although others were still hesitant. There was a small group still furious with the changes. Anne’s father and the Alyssum family among them.

            Ray sighed and Ryan glanced down at him. “Tired?” he said, cupping Ray’s cheek and pulling his face up a bit.

            “Yeah,” Ray said, eyes half closed and smile soft.

            “So am I,” Ryan chuckled as he leaned down and kissed Ray. His fingers hooked on his jaw as Ray shifted in his lap, wrapping his arms around Ryan’s shoulders.

            Ray pressed closer as they kissed, fingers gently ghosting up his neck to thread through his hair. His steel sword clanked against the wood of the desk as he shifted to straddle Ryan’s lap.

            Ryan carefully pulled the sword free and leaned forward without breaking the kiss and supporting Ray with one hand. He set the sword on his desk before leaning back again. They parted for a second before kissing again.

            Before either of them could think of going further, a startled yelp from the doorway made them part. Ray sunk in the seat, hiding his entirely red face against Ryan’s chest.

            Blushing himself, Ryan smiled sheepishly at Anne who was smirking at them from the door way, her cheeks pink. “Should I come back?” she said, resting her hands on her hips, a few rolled up blueprints under her armpit.

            “No, its fine,” Ryan croaked before clearing his throat. Ray laughed against him, fingers curling in his shirt.

            Anne laughed lightly, coming over to his desk and setting the paper on his already tall pile. “A few more workers had some good ideas. I walked them through the blueprint process,” she said, pulling at her long hair that was pulled back with a Lavender flower.

            “Okay, thank you, Anne,” Ryan said, trying to will his blush away.

            Anne snickered at him before heading for the door. She smiled cheekily back at them as she closed the door behind her. Ryan blushed all over again, burying his face in Ray’s shoulder.

            “At least it was just Anne,” Ray said, muffled against Ryan’s chest, “Can you image if it was Michael and Gavin, again?”

            “Hey, I finally got them to let the first time go,” Ryan snorted, smiling down at Ray when he looked up at him, “We really need to stop doing this here.”

            “But you’re always here,” Ray groaned, nuzzling Ryan’s jaw.

            Ryan frowned and held Ray tighter. “I’m sorry,” he said, pressing his cheek against Ray’s head.

            Ray sighed and leaned back, smiling at Ryan. “I know you’re buried under work. A new guild is a hassle,” he said, running his fingers through Ryan’s hair, “but it’d be nice to see you sometimes.”

            Ryan frowned, reaching up to cup Ray’s cheeks. “I-“ he paused, mouth open and eyes searching for words in the air. He suddenly smiled and kissed Ray’s nose, “You don’t have any appoints tomorrow, do you?”

            “Nothing but the council meeting,” Ray said, narrowing his eyes at Ryan’s brightening smile, “Why?”

            “I don’t have anything either,” Ryan said, chuckling when he could see the gears turning in Ray’s beautiful brown eyes, “If I get a bit ahead today, we can have all day tomorrow after the council meeting.”

            Ray smiled brightly and hugged Ryan tightly. “Fuck yes,” he said, relaxing as Ryan laughed against him, arms looping around his waist again.

            “Nothing but us and our ridiculously comfortable bed,” Ryan nodded, tilting his head up to kiss Ray’s chin.

            Ray laughed and kissing Ryan again. Again, before they could get far, there was a knock on the door and Ray’s personal guard, Borage, reminded Ray that he had an appointment with the magic guild soon.

            Ray groaned, forehead dropping onto Ryan’s shoulder. “Thought I lost him,” he mumbled, slipping off of the chair.

            “You should know better than that,” Ryan laughed, standing and peppering Ray’s face with kisses until he laughed, “Borage is good at his job.”

            “I know,” Ray snorted, pushing on Ryan’s face. He smiled at him, kissed him quickly before going over to the door, slipping his sword into his belt again. Borage smiled at them both when the door opened. He bowed to them before gesturing for Ray to follow him.

            Ray smiled back at Ryan before following Borage from the room. Ryan waved until they disappeared. Sighing, he dropped into his chair. He had been working hard so he could have a week with Ray after their wedding. He knew Anne, Michael, and Gavin could handle the guild for a few days, he just felt worried. There hadn’t been an accident in weeks, but there was a reason there was a sign that said “This many days since the last accident” in the labs.

            Ryan sighed and scrubbed his face. He eyed the pile of papers he still had to go through. How thick they were made them seem much more daunting.

            Taking a deep breath, Ryan pulled the top paper and started reviewing the project idea. By the time he did return to the castle, Ray was still working with the magic guild and the moon was high in the sky. He dropped onto their bed and sighed at how comfortable the damn thing was.

            Ray entered a few minutes later, dropping onto the bed next to him. Ryan flung his arm over his waist, smiling when Ray laughed lightly. “Did you finish what you needed to?” Ray said softly after a moment.

            “No,” Ryan sighed, turning on his side to see Ray’s face. Before Ray could scowl he reached out and traced his fingers lightly over his cheek bones. “But that won’t stop me from taking tomorrow off.”

            Ray looked at Ryan and smiled tiredly. “Good, I was going to kick your ass.”

            Ryan laughed and pushed himself up to hover over Ray, he leaned down and kissed him, feeling fingers thread through his hair. Just as Ryan began to nip at the skin on Ray’s neck, there was a knock on their door.

            They both groaned, but Ryan rolled over and Ray got up. Scowling, he swung the door open. “Yes?” he said, frowning at the guard on the other side.

            “A messenger came to inform you that Lady Alyssum successfully had her child,” the guard said, back straight and eyes blank and tired.

            “Ah,” Ray said, leaning against the door frame, “This was the child of her husband who ‘mysteriously’ died?”

            “Yes, my King,” the guard said, bowing his head.

            “What’s the child’s name?” Ray said, shaking his head as Ryan snorted behind him.

            “A-Angrec, my King,” the guard said, shifting on his feet nervously.

            Ray scowled as Ryan sat up and walked over. “Angrec? Really?” Ryan said, wrapping his arms around Ray’s waist and resting his chin on his shoulder.

            “I’m afraid so,” the guard sighed, shaking his head.

            “What’s his glow?” Ray huffed, folding his arms on top of Ryan’s.

            “The messenger said it was yellow when he left, my Kings,” the guard said, starting to yawn before stopping himself.

            “Very good,” Ray mumbled, shaking his head, “I shall send a gift in the morning.”

            “I will tell the messenger,” the guard said, bowing to them before stalking down the hallway.

            “Poor guy,” Ryan mumbled as he scooped Ray up into his arms before kicking the door closed, “The messenger probably woke him up.”

            “Or caught him before he went to bed,” Ray mumbled, snuggling into Ryan’s chest, “I wanna sleep, Rye.”

            “I know, my rose,” Ryan chuckled, setting Ray down on their bed before heading for their dresser. He tossed Ray one of his old, over-sized t-shirt before pulling out his favorite pair of pajama pants. He was glad Geoff and Jack remembered to bring them the last time they were there.

            Ray smiled at the shirt and quickly changed into just the t-shirt. He hugged it close to him before curling up into a ball on the bed. Ryan smiled at him as he changed into just the pants. He climbed into bed behind Ray and pulled his back to his chest.

 

* * *

 

            Madam Alyssum watched her grandson sleep, sitting on the edge of her daughter’s bed. The baby’s glow slowly shifted through various colors. She couldn’t tell if the color changes were slowing. She closed her eyes, exhausted from just watching her daughter give birth.

            She wrinkled her nose when a bright light glowed through her eyelids. She opened her eyes and her jaw dropped. A bright golden glow oozed from the crib, filling the room. She watched for a few moments, waiting for the color to change.

“Buttercup, wake up!” Madam Alyssum hissed, smacking her daughters arm when the color didn’t even flicker.

            Lady Alyssum groaned and moved her arm away. “Mother, I just gave birth, please leave me alone.”

            “Get up!” Madam Alyssum snapped, pushing her again, “You were healed.”

            “I’m still tired!” Buttercup growled, glaring at her mother through slits. Heavy bags dragged at the skin under her eyes. Her hands still had a slight tremble and her face was still ashen. “What do you want?”

            “Your son’s glow is _gold_!” Madam Alyssum said, gesturing over to the cradle in the corner of the room. A faint yellow glow filled the room, competing with Buttercup’s own pink glow.

            “The doctor said it was still changing,” Buttercup mumbled, rolling over and pressing her face into her pillow.

            “No, it’s gold, look at it!” Madam Alyssum said, grabbing her daughter’s face and squeezing her cheeks until she let her turn her head back over to the crib.

            Still squinting, Lady Alyssum studied her son’s glow. “I guess that can be gold,” she mumbled, pulling her face out of her mother’s hand, “What’s your point?”

            “This is the opportunity we’ve been looking for!” Madam Alyssum said, grinning manically at the crib, “A golden glow hasn’t been born into any family but that idiot King’s for decades, but now that he’s marrying that human a new child needs to take his place.”

            “Okay, so what do we do?” Buttercup said, sitting up in her bed and rubbing her left eye.

            Madam Alyssum stared at her daughter for a long moment. Long enough for Buttercup to frown at her and wave her hand in front of her face to see if she was still in this reality. She didn’t flinch at her hand so Buttercup shrugged and moved to lay down again when her mother suddenly grabbed her shoulders.

            “I have it!” Madam Alyssum said, smiling at her pouting daughter, “We need to get Rose out of the picture so his human pet will be confused and vulnerable. Once we kill him, Rose will die and the wings will be transferred to your boy.”

            “But he’s not old enough to rule, he was literally just born!” Buttercup whined, wiggling out of her mother’s grasp.

            “That’s where we come in!” Madam Alyssum sneered, smacking the back of Buttercup’s head, “We’ll rule for him until he comes of age and when he’s old enough, make him dependent on us.”

            Buttercup’s brows furrowed as she rubbed the back of her head. “How are we going to kidnap Rose anyway? He’ll know if we get close,” she said after a moment.

            Madam Alyssum opened her mouth then closed it again. She held her left elbow as she tapped her nose, eyes glazing over again. Buttercup threw her hands up in annoyance, folding her arms.

            “We need a human,” Madam Alyssum eventually said. Buttercup’s head snapped up from her head bobbing as she started to drift off.

            “A human?” Buttercup said, blinking tiredly.

            Madam Alyssum nodded and stood, hand on her chin. “I can turn them invisible and sneak them in while the kingdom is sleeping! Rose won’t notice them and they have access to plastic to contain him.”

            “How are we going to find a human though?” Buttercup said, leaning back against the headboard, “We can’t fly.”

            “No, but the hunters and guards can,” Madam Alyssum smirked, rushing for the door, “Tomorrow night we will leave!”

            Buttercup groaned as her mother left. She flopped back down onto her bed and went back to sleep. She hoped her mother would let her sleep in since they weren’t going to be getting an sleep at all tomorrow.

 

* * *

 

            Ray woke late in the morning. Ryan was still asleep as he slipped from the bed and changed. He went to the council meeting and sat through the conversations and voting, happy to dismiss the fairies the instant he could.

            When he returned to their room, he found Ryan sitting up in bed small tools in hand as he worked on some metal contraption sitting in his lap. “Hey, no work today, remember?” Ray said as he walked over to the bed and crawled over to Ryan, snuggling into his side.

            “This isn’t work,” Ryan laughed, kissing the top of Ray’s head, “It’s a gift.”

            Ray snorted, smiling when Ryan set his tools down and wrapped his arm around his waist. He looked down at the metal and froze, eyes wide. The patched together metal was cut into perfect petals, welded onto a bronze ball in the center of the petals.

            “It’s a rose,” Ray breathed, reaching out and running his fingers over the smooth metal.

            “I’m not done yet,” Ryan said, picking up a long piece of metal that was melted, bent, and styled to look like a flower stem, including the thrones, “I still need to attach this.”

            Ray carefully took the stem from Ryan’s hand and looked over the heavy piece. “I had no idea you could do with metal.”

            Ryan chuckled and took the stem back. He removed the flower and buffering tools from his lap and set them on his nightstand. “Well, now that the surprise is ruined, what do you want to do?” he said, turning toward Ray.

            Ray swung his leg over, straddling Ryan’s lap, and kissed him. Ryan made a surprised snort before happily kissing back, hands landing on Ray’s hips. Ray locked their door with a thought, glad he told his guards and servants that he and Ryan were having a day to themselves, especially when one of Ryan’s rough hands went up his shirt while the other tugged at his pants.

 

* * *

 

            Sneaking into the hunter guild was easy with Madam Alyssum’s magical ability to turn them invisible for a short amount of time. On quick feet as the moon glowed in the sky, they found a bird in the stables. Her magic wore out when they were struggling to figure out how to saddle the bird. When they suddenly appeared, the Robin started to squawk in panic.

            A guard came by just as Lady Alyssum hid them behind the bird, pressed up against the stable wall. The guard calmed the bird before leaving.

            Buttercup kept the bird calm as Madam Alyssum figured out how to harness the bird. Once the saddle was on, Lady Alyssum quickly learned how to fly a bird. They wobbled in the air slightly, all three invisible, before eventually evening out.

            Before long, they found a camp of humans. Buttercup landed the bird on a branch as they watched the only human awake dig through the others’ backpacks. “Is he stealing?” Buttercup whispered to her mother.

            “I do believe he is,” Madam Alyssum said, smirking down at the human pocketing some things from the backpack. A strange, wide brimmed hat hung down his back by a string. His green clothes had patches and badges. “He’s perfect, take us down.”

            Buttercup nodded and urged the bird down to a stump just behind the human. They slipped from the harness, Buttercup holding onto the reins.

            “Hello!” Madam Alyssum said sweetly, making the man jump and whirl around. He looked around quickly, brow furrowing when he didn’t see anyone. Small blips of light suddenly caught his eye and he looked at the stump.

            “Oh god, not more of them,” the man hissed, slowly pocketing a wallet, “Listen, I don’t want anything to do with that human that became one of you.”

            “Oh, we’re not here for _him_ ,” Madam Alyssum said smiling up at the man as he raised an eyebrow and came over, “We’re here for you!”

            “What?” the man said, narrowing his eyes at the fairy.

            “You’re a frugal man,” Madam Alyssum said, gesturing to the backpacks, “wise to know this world only works for money.”

            “Yeah,” the man said slowly, shifting to sit crossed legged beside the stump, “And?”

            Madam Alyssum smiled crookedly, squinting at the dark name tag on the man’s chest. “Can you image, John, how much money you could get from selling a real fairy?”

            John frowned down at Madam Alyssum. “You want me to sell you?”  
            “No, no, not us!” Madam Alyssum laughed lightly, glad John didn’t seem to hear the terrified squeak that came from her daughter, “A King, a fairy with wings! No one will believe you if you give them a fairy with no wings. No one will buy.”

            “True,” John said, resting his elbow on his knee then his chin in his palm, “How can I do that though?”  
            “Well, do you have a plastic container of some sort?” Madam Alyssum said with a polite smile.

            “Uh, yeah,” John said slowly, looking at his tent, “It’s for me to catch bugs for ‘education purposes’,” he said in a mocking tone, “Why?”

            “To put your prize in, of course! And I guarantee that he won’t be able to escape,” Madam Alyssum said sweetly.

            “But, isn’t he all powerful, or something?” John said, frowning down at the fairy, “I mean, he shrank a human and shit.”

            “You’ll capture him when he’s sleeping and plastic is the greatest weakness of fairies. He won’t be able to do anything,” Madam Alyssum said, frowning when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

            “We need to keep him from leaving the forest after he has Rose,” Buttercup whispered, looking nervously up at John who was considering their offer, “If he leaves before we kill the human the wing might not come back and the forest will suffer.”

            “Oh good, I didn’t think of that,” Madam Alyssum said, patting her daughter’s head, “Oh and one more thing!” she said to John.

            “Huh?” John said, eyes snapping back into reality.

            “You can’t leave the frost until we tell you,” Madam Alyssum said, folding her hands neatly in front of her.

            “What, why?” John said, scowling as he leaned back slightly.

            “Well, if you leave with the King the forest will begin to die and then you can’t use this as a trap to get even more money,” Madam Alyssum said, shaking her head sadly.

            John huffed before shrugging. “I don’t see why I need to come back here if I have a fairy.”

            “Uh, what my mother doesn’t want to tell you,” Buttercup said, ignoring her mother’s glare, “Is that he’ll die if he leaves, we have to separate him from the forest before you can sell him.”

            “Oh, shit, okay,” John said with a shrug, “Don’t know why you didn’t just say that.”

            Madam Alyssum and Buttercup both sighed in relief. “I’m so glad you’ve agreed!” Madam Alyssum said as Buttercup climbed back up onto the bird, “We’ll tell you our plan as we go.”

            Just before they arrived to the kingdom, Madam Alyssum turned them all invisible as Buttercup landed the bird on John’s shoulder.

            John carefully made his way to the castle, peaking into the windows, he searched for the royal couple’s room. He found the right room and slipped his trembling fingers in. “Remember, just the small one,” Madam Alyssum hissed.

            John frowned, trying to slip his fingers between the two sleeping fairy but Ryan was holding onto the smaller fairy tightly. Scowling, as Ryan started to stir, he pulled his hand out, watching as Ryan let the fairy go and rolled over, the fairy snuggling into his back.

            Smiling, John scooped the fairy up and dumbed him in the bug container hanging from his belt. He paused and looked at Ryan. “Don’t,” Madam Alyssum whispered nearly directly into his ear, “Together they will over power you, plastic or not.”

            Sighing, John nodded and slowly shuffled away from the kingdom. Buttercup and Madam Alyssum shared crooked smiles as John walked back to the camp site.

            “Go back, it’ll look odd if the new mother is gone,” Madam Alyssum said, pushing Buttercup toward the bird, “I’ll stay. Be sure to kill the human!”

            “Okay, mother, be safe,” Buttercup said, kissing her mother’s cheeks before flying back to the kingdom on the bird.

           

* * *

 

            Ryan woke slowly. He blinked a few times at the ceiling, reaching his arm out to the other side of the bed. Ray was usually snuggled up to him when he woke up. He frowned as he didn’t feel anything.

            Sitting up slowly, he looked over at the bed, eyes widening. Ray wasn’t in bed and he never got up at a decent hour unless Ryan literally dragged him from the bed. Taking a shaking, deep breath he reached out with his magic.

            His lungs squeezed and he froze as he desperately searched for Ray in the kingdom and found nothing. He stretched his reach out to the entire forest. He should be able to feel him, he knew everything that was in the forest and Ray couldn’t, wouldn’t, leave the forest.

            Ryan stumbled to his feet as he found a small camp of humans. He zeroed in on a familiar ranger and crooked old woman. His heart burst into his throat when he found Ray’s presence, weak and small.

            Panic was replaced with rage in less than a millisecond. The entire forest shuddered and every fairy felt the atmosphere changed.

            Gladiolus rushed to the door and hesitantly knocked. He jumped when Ryan opened the door and floated past him, eyes dark. “M-my King?” he said nervously, stepping back.

            Ryan’s head snapped toward Gladiolus, his glow pulsating brighter and brighter. “Get the guard ready, someone has kidnapped Ray.”

            Gladiolus’s eyes widened and he quickly nodded. Ryan watched him run off before floating out of the castle. He quickly found Lady Alyssum with her baby and burst toward her home.

            He slammed his fists hard against the door, glaring down at the young woman when she opened the door. “M-my K-k-k-king?” Lady Alyssum stuttered, looking up at Ryan with wide eyes. He wasn’t supposed to be angry!

            “I hope you realize what you’ve done,” Ryan said slowly, “New mother or not, you will be punished.” Treason was a bigger offence here because the lively hood of the entire forest was put into jeopardy.

            “I-it was my mother’s idea! S-she- you know how it is! I just follow along,” Lady Alyssum laughed awkwardly, hugging herself and backing away from Ryan, “Please.”

            Ryan sneered and waved the guards coming over to them closer. “Arrest her and take her to the guild’s holding cell,” he snarled at the guards, turning to leave. He paused when he heard the baby cry, eyes softening. 

            He stepped around Lady Alyssum begging him to let her go, he could even keep her kid. Shaking his head, he found the baby in Lady Alyssum’s room. His yellow glow almost looked golden. Ryan’s wing twitched and his eyes widened.

            “So this was why,” Ryan said softly, walking over to the crib and smiling down at the baby who sniffed up at him. “Hey there kiddo.”

            He leaned down and carefully picked the baby up and cradled him to his chest. The baby blinked through his tears before smiling up at Ryan. His little arms waved in the air, his glow melding perfectly with Ryan’s.

            “They would have used you for the entirety of your life,” Ryan sighed, holding one of the boy’s hands. Fairy babies are born slightly more developed than human babies. He was already able to grip Ryan’s fingers.

            Smiling slightly, he turned toward the door and carried the baby outside where Gladiolus was waiting for him with a small platoon of high ranking guards. “My King? The guards are ready to follow your command,” Gladiolus said.

            Ryan nodded to him and looked down at the baby. With a thought, the cradle floated out of the house. “Get them ready to fly,” he said to Gladiolus before flying up, the cradle tailing after.

            He sent his magic out again and saw the humans beginning to packing up camp. Frowning and holding the baby tighter, he willed the trees around the small clearing to be sentient, just for a few moments.

            He smirked as the tree bark split into crud faces. Branches, like arms, bent and curled around the humans. Their screams reached the kingdom, the other fairies looking up at Ryan in fear. He had been something of a gentle giant until now.

            Ryan set the crib down in their room, laying the baby inside. He smiled down at the baby, trying to be gentle with the servants he had come in and watch over the child. His stomach was twisting like a brick thrown into a washing machine.

            Once the baby was situated, he flew from the castle and found the guards on their birds and looking for his order. He floated above them, looking over the guards. Gladiolus urged his bird over to Ryan, standing beside him.

            “We will follow you,” Gladiolus said, bowing while sitting.

            Ryan nodded and, in the best bell-like sounds he could physically make, he told them Ray was taken and they were going to take him back as eloquently as he could. The guards raise their war cry and Ryan turned and started to fly into the forest. The guards urged the birds into the air and followed after Ryan in formation. 

            In the clearing, the trees had released the humans not involved, scaring them in the right direction to get back to the information center. The ranger was struggling to free himself from the tree branches holding him.

            Madam Alyssum tried to turn him invisible, but the trees were not easily fooled. They roared when the ranger pulled out a serrated blade and started cutting the branch. He was thrown by the tree into another sentient tree.

            The new tree smacked the knife from his hand. He heard the blade thud when it hit the ground. He struggled against the trees. In the plastic container at his hip, Ray was half awake, being thrown around the container in the struggle.

            Ray groaned as he slammed against the wall. He dropped down to the floor of the container. He coughed hard, holding his side. His wing twitched and fluttered. He squinted through the plastic, shaking too much to try and steady himself when he was thrown again. He saw the sentient trees and smiled.

            “Ryan’s mad,” he croaked, closing his eyes. He tried to reach out to Ryan. He could feel him reaching for him, but didn’t have the energy to reach back.

            As he was thrown once again, his vision swam. When the world came into focus again, he saw Ryan’s brilliant glow and the guards all mounted on birds.

            Ryan folded his arms and glared down at the ranger who had stopped struggling. He looked up at Ryan in fear. “P-please,” he rasped, clutching to the branch holding him.

            Ryan scowled and floated closer. “Free Ray, _now_ ,” he snarled.

            The ranger yelped and shakily reached for the container. He fumbled with the lid for a few moments before opening the container. Ray weakly pulled himself up with the help of the lip. He nearly tumbled out but Ryan was there in an instant to catch him.

            Ray cradled tightly in his arms, Ryan floated back up to glare at the ranger. “If you _ever_ return to this forest, I _will_ turn you into a tree.”

            The ranger’s eyes widened and he nodded quickly. With a snort, the trees returned to their natural state, dropping the ranger to the ground. He ran the instant he could.

            Ryan watched him leave, sending a platoon to follow him to make sure he left. He held Ray tighter, glancing around the clearing. “I know you’re here Madam Alyssum,” he said darkly, narrowing his eyes.

            He hear the old woman’s cries on the ground. With a smirk, he nodded to another platoon. “Capture her and make sure she’s as far away from her daughter as possible,” he said before heading back toward the kingdom with the rest of the platoon.

            Ray was snuggled into Ryan’s chest. He smiled against him as Ryan carried him all the way back to the castle. No one was about to think Ryan weak again.

           

* * *

 

            “So you took her baby?” Ray said, smiling up at said baby he was holding under the arms.

            “You don’t look like you’re complaining,” Ryan snorted, sitting behind Ray and wrapping his arms around his waist, his legs on either side of Ray.

            “I’m not,” Ray laughed, leaning back against Ryan and setting the baby’s feet on his knees, “Those two would have made your life hell, yes they would.” His voice went higher as he brushed his nose against the baby’s, making the boy giggle.

            Ryan chuckled and rested his chin on Ray’s shoulder. Ray sat the baby on his lap, with his back toward them. He let the boy play with his fingers. “They’ll go through their trial after our wedding week so we can be there,” Ray said, tilting his head to kiss Ryan’s cheek, “They want us to do something about this little guy.”

            “Why don’t we keep him?” Ryan said, reaching up to play with the short, curly, fuzz on the boy’s head, “His glow does match ours, it would probably be best if we raised him.”

            “That’s true,” Ray chuckled, rubbing the boy’s stomach and smiling when he giggled, “He is adorable.”

            Ryan chuckled and kissed Ray’s temple. “Not even married and we have a kid,” he said, shaking his head, “We’re going about this backwards.”

            Ray snorted and rolled his eyes. “Having a child usually means a wedding is complete,” he said, taking the boy’s hands and waved them in the air as the baby giggled.

            “Baby usually comes after a few years after marriage for humans,” Ryan said, smiling down at the baby, “Should we rename him?”

            “Probably, anything is better than Angrec,” Ray snorted, smiling down at the baby when he tilted his head up to look at them.

            Ryan hummed, watching the boy smile back at Ray, clinging to his fingers and giggling. He had bright blue eyes that wouldn’t change as he got older. “James,” he said, startling Ray slightly.

            “What?” Ray said, brow furrowing at Ryan as he leaned to the side to look at him.

            “His name, it should be James,” Ryan said, looking down at the baby and smiling at him. He let him grab onto his hand and chew on his fingers gently.

            Ray blinked at Ryan for a moment before smiling. “James it is,” he said softly, scooping the baby into his arms and hugging him as gently as possible. Ryan laughed and squeezed Ray gently, happy to have him in his arms once again and in a month, he would have him in his arms forever.


	16. NOT A STORY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is an announcement not a story.

Hello! 

I hate to do this, but I just wanted you to know that I've created a new blog for all of my original works and characters. If you liked my writing, there’s a bunch of new stories and ideas on this blog if you want to check it out. This blog will be in the notes of all of my works from now on.

Blog: <http://vidparson.tumblr.com/> 


	17. Dead Fish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy is hiding something and Lindsey wants to find out what, dragging Ray along with her for the ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
> 
> Based on these comics: http://djlemmiex.tumblr.com/post/145820686857/what-a-puppy-am-i-right-a-simple-note   
> http://djlemmiex.tumblr.com/post/146268758057/a-simple-note-im-jeremy
> 
> If you want to see more of my work, please go to my writing blog: http://vidparson.tumblr.com/

            Ray didn’t really care if Jeremy disappeared every weekend to go to the beach. He had thought that Jeremy wasn’t an outside guy like him but if he liked the beach, why should Ray say anything at all about the subject? Unfortunately, Lindsey was much nosier than Ray.

             “But you hate going outside!” Lindsey whined, leaning against Jeremy, “Why do you keep going to the beach?”

            Jeremy sighed and looked over Lindsey’s head at Ray with a hopeful look. Ray just shrugged and killed Jeremy in the Halo match they were in. Jeremy pouted, before sighing when Lindsey started poking him in the side.

            “I just like the beach Lids,” Jeremy said, swatting Lindsey’s hands away.

            Lindsey huffed, leaning away and folding her arms. Jeremy relaxed and focused on trying to get Ray back. They both jumped and groaned when Lindsey suddenly had them both in a headlock. “Well then, you won’t mind if Ray and I tag along on your next beach trip, will you?”  
            “Hey!” Ray snapped, pushing on Lindsey’s back, trying to squeeze his head free, “Why are you involving me in this?”

            Jeremy paled and scowled but before he could argue, Lindsey was hugging them tighter. “Great! We’ll go tomorrow!” Lindsey said, smirking down at them.

            Both men sighed, going limp against their friend. Lindsey wasn’t the easiest person to argue with. “Why do I have to go?” Ray said, trying to wiggle free again.

            “It wouldn’t be any fun without you!” Lindsey said, holding Ray tighter.

            “Just give it up man,” Jeremy sighed as Ray groaned and went limp again, “We’re both screwed.”          

            Ray shot Jeremy a glare before sighing and starting a new game while still trapped. Lindsey kept them in headlocks until they agreed with her plans for the trip. Once they muttered tired agreements, she happily let them go and pranced out of the apartment Ray and Jeremy shared.

            They both watched the door close over the back of the couch. “Your fault,” Ray said, shooting Jeremy a glare, “I fucking shrivel in the sun.”

            “I know!” Jeremy groaned, dropping his forehead onto the back of the couch, “But Lindsey isn’t going to let it go now.”

            “You owe me,” Ray huffed after a moment, turning back to the TV.

            Jeremy snorted and turned back as well. In the morning, Lindsey was pounding on their door bright and early. If she knew where they had hid the spare key this time, she would have barged right in and dragged them from their beds.

            Burly eyed and dragging their feet, Ray and Jeremy changed and carried their (mainly Lindsey’s) beach gear down to her truck. Only Ray was able to sleep the entire ride to the beach since he wasn’t able to drive.

            Lindsey kept kicking Jeremy awake since he knew where they were going. They switched once, after Lindsey grew tired of Jeremy’s half-assed instructions.

            Ray squinted in the light once they arrived. He was still half asleep and hated the feeling of burning sand between his toes. Lindsey had insisted that they take off their shoes once they arrived and then snitched his shoes and locked them into the truck when he started complaining.

            Sighing, he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his favorite purple hoodie. His pink DS rattled as he bumped the device with his hand. His blue and green swim trunks gently brushed his knee caps as he trudged after Jeremy and Lindsey toward the water. The air was cool and the water looked colder.

            He pulled his black beanie over his ears as a cold gust brushed past them. The sun was beating down on the sand, making his feet warm while the rest of him shivered. There were only a few people on the beach, all with multicolored towels and wide umbrellas. He shivered again against the cold.

            “There’s more people than I thought there would be,” Lindsey said, looking over the other patrons as Jeremy dropped their things in the sand.

            “Their hoping it’ll be summer for a few days longer,” Jeremy snorted, looking along the shoreline.

            Ray snorted, watching as Jeremy looked over at an outcrop of rocks nervously. “It’s fucking cold. You’re not making us go in the water, are you?” he said, eyes snapping to Lindsey.

            “You’d probably melt, so no,” Lindsey snorted, watching Jeremy with narrowed eyes, “Well, Lil’J, what do you do here for fun?”

            “Uh,” Jeremy cringed, snapping his head back toward them, “I, uh.”

            “Climb the rocks?” Ray said, nodding toward the natural dock formed by a mass of stone leading from the line of plants feet from the water out toward the random, small islands of rocks.

            Jeremy shot Ray a glare, sighing when Ray just shrugged back. “Uh, yeah,”

            “Cool! Let’s go!” Lindsey said, grabbing the bags Jeremy and dropped and thrusting them back into his arms.

            “Wait, Lindsey!” Jeremy shouted, running after Lindsey as she took off toward the rocks. Ray sighed and dragged his feet through the sand behind them.

            Lindsey laughed on top of the rock, smirking down at Jeremy trying to scramble up after her with his arms full. “I’m King of the rock!”

            “Long live the king,” Ray deadpanned, rolling his eyes as Lindsey snickered. He took one of the bags from Jeremy, letting him race up the rock before following after.

            Lindsey skipped over the slick, dark rock, around small pools of shells and small, vibrant green plants. Jeremy bit his lip, trailing after her and watching the water slam against the rock. Ray glanced into the pools, smiling slightly as the small fish and crabs he saw shifting around at the bottom.

            “Oh cool!” Lindsey gasped, sliding down the rock to a small alcove in the rock. The water coated a small portion of the alcove, gently lapping at the smooth stone.

            Lindsey walked over and stood in the gentle tide, shivering with a soft laugh. “This is cool.”

            Jeremy’s shoulders sagged as he sighed. He smiled tiredly at Lindsey, setting the bags near the drop between the higher portions of the rock. Ray looked around the alcove and found a small space between two rocks probably pushed up onto the land by the waves. He easily squeezed himself into the space and grinned.

            Jeremy went over and stood next to Lindsey, looking around at the little islands further from the main rock. The main rock wrapped around them, blocking their view of the sandy shore.

            “I see why you like it here,” Lindsey said, smiling out over the horizon as Jeremy walked further out, goosebumps raising on his skin.

            “Yeah,” Jeremy sighed, pushing his right foot ahead of him in the murky blue water. He stopped and dropped to his ass, legs disappearing into the water.

            “Is there a ledge?” Lindsey said, following after Jeremy.

            “Yeah, be careful,” Jeremy said, watching Lindsey shuffle towards him.

            Lindsey smiled as she found the ledge with her foot and dropped down beside Jeremy. “Come on Ray!” she called over her shoulder, “You’ve got to get wet at least once this trip.”

            Ray rolled his eyes but stood before Lindsey could drag him away. He pulled his hoodie off and gently draped it over their bags, the pockets being weighed down with his phone and DS. The soft white t-shirt he wore under the jacket was blinding in the sunlight.

            “Ah! My eyes!” Lindsey gasped as Ray turned and trudged toward them, “At least cover your arms!”

            Jeremy laughed as Ray snorted and carefully slid his foot in front of him. The rock was slick under his toes, the chilled water washing the sand sticking to his skin away. He felt chills shoot up his spine just as his toes found the edge of the rock and were met with empty ocean.

            He dropped down on the other side of Jeremy, letting his legs float in the water just off of the side of the cliff. He shivered and raised his hands to his arms, rubbing the goosebumps gently. “Better get a good look, I’ll be an over cooked lobster by the time we leave.”

            “We all will, accept Jeremy,” Lindsey said, bumping her shoulder with Jeremy’s, “He’s the only one who tans.”

            “Well, I put sunscreen on,” Jeremy snorted, rolling his eyes as Lindsey shrugged, “You two will suffer for it.”

            “I put that shit on,” Ray said, raising his arm to Jeremy’s face, “Can’t you smell it?”

            “Yes,” Jeremy laughed, pushing Ray’s arm out of face, “It’s on me too.”

            Lindsey chuckled as Ray grinned and looked out over the horizon. He eventually got used to the temperature, leaning forward to dangle his arms in the water. He loved the feeling of the water wrapping around his skin, gently pushing and pulling.

            Wiggling his fingers in the water, he barely heard Jeremy and Lindsey talking as the sun warmed his back and the water cooled his arms and legs. He closed his eyes and sighed, smiling slightly.

            He gasped and jumped back as a clammy hand wrapped around his ankle. He flailed his leg, kicking something hard before scrambling up the rock. Lindsey and Jeremy looked at him with wide eyes as he shot them glares.

            “Not fucking funny!” Ray snapped, dropping to his ass in the shallow water, rubbing his ankle.

            “What the fuck?” Lindsey said, brow furrowing.

            “One of you grabbed me!” Ray snapped, frowning down at the handprint forming on his ankle.

            “Fuck,” Jeremy breathed, head snapping to look into the water.

            “Neither of us touched you,” Lindsey huffed at Ray, folding her arms.

            “I had to have kicked one of you, we’re the only ones here!” Ray snapped back, folding his own arms.

            Lindsey opened her mouth to argue when Jeremy gasped, and reached into the water. “Damnit Gav,” he mumbled as he searched his arms in the water.

            Ray and Lindsey shared confused glances until Jeremy started to sit up, pale hands gripping Jeremy’s forearms. “What the hell?!” Ray gasped as a head of blond hair poked out of the water then a face with a giant nose.

            “Sorry luv,” the man holding Jeremy’s arms said, smiling crookedly. He had a pair of gold rimmed sunglasses hanging from his neck by a thin string. Gray, smooth skin hung from his forearms. “Thought he was you.”

            Jeremy sighed as Lindsey and Ray’s jaws dropped. The man let Jeremy’s arms go, folding his own on Jeremy’s lap and rested his chin on his crossed arms. He gently rubbed the darkening red splotch on his right arm. “It’s fine Gav, this was bound to happen,” Jeremy sighed, running his fingers through the man’s hair.

            “YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND?!” Lindsey nearly screeched, grabbing Jeremy’s shoulders and shaking him, “And he’s British?!”

            Ray edged closer as the man laughed and Jeremy smiled sheepishly. “I uh, this is Gavin?”

            Lindsey glared at Jeremy and let him go. “When were you going to tell us?” she said, looking between them.

            Jeremy and Gavin shared panicked looks before looking back at Lindsey sheepishly. “We were, it’s just, kind of hard to explain,” Jeremy said, wincing when Lindsey narrowed her eyes.

            Ray sat carefully next to Jeremy again, ignoring the lecture Lindsey was giving him. Squinting into the water as something gently brushed his legs. He watched as something gently swayed in the water. Whatever it was had white and gray colorings and was big. Each time it brushed his legs, he felt tough, smooth skin.

            His eyes widened as he made out the fuzzy shapes of tail fins. “What the fuck?!” he gasped, yanking his legs out of the water and scooting back, stopping Lindsey’s lecture mid-word, “Why the hell do you have a fucking fin?!”

            Jeremy and Gavin flinched and looked at Ray with wide eyes. “Guess the fish is out of the bag?” Gavin said slowly after a moment of tense silence.

            Jeremy slammed his palm against his forehead as Gavin laughed lightly. Lindsey scowled at them as Ray scooted further back. “Gav,” Jeremy sighed, shaking his head.

            “What?” Gavin laughed, slipping from Jeremy’s lap to the stone. With a grunt, he pushed himself up and rested against the rock.

            Just below his naval, smooth pale skin turned into smooth hard gray and white muscle. A tail fin poked out of the water, waving back and forth. “I’m a merman,” Gavin shrugged as Lindsey’s jaw dropped and Ray stared at them with wide eyes, “Well, technically I’m a dolphin.”

            Jeremy sighed as Gavin looked between Ray and Lindsey with a sad attempt at a reassuring smile. “Explain, now,” Lindsey snapped, shooting Jeremy a glare. Ray edged over and sat on Lindsey’s other side, eyeing Gavin’s tale nervously.

“We, uh, we met when I came down here with some other friends? I found this place and hung around and then suddenly Gavin fucking burst from the water,” Jeremy said, shoulders tense, even as Gavin grabbed his hand and held on tightly.

            “Shocked us both,” Gavin laughed awkwardly, tale making the water foam as it moved faster, “Never seen a human that close before.”

            “We, uh, started talking and then I was coming down here every weekend,” Jeremy said, shoulders relaxing as he gave Gavin a goofy smile.

            Lindsey and Ray glanced at each other as Gavin made a chittering sound, letting Jeremy’s hand go to hug him tightly instead. Jeremy laughed lightly and hugged Gavin back, tensing when he caught the shit eating grins Lindsey and Ray were giving them.

            “We were going to tell you, when we had a better idea of how,” Jeremy said quickly, smiling sheepishly. Gavin didn’t let go and didn’t stop chittering. He nuzzled his nose into Jeremy’s hair gently.

            Lindsey nodded slowly, folding her arms. “This is kind of hard to explain.”

            “So, we’re just going to accept this and move on like its normal?” Ray said, looking Gavin over again.

            “Could you?” Jeremy said, giving Ray a pleading look.

            Ray blinked at Jeremy before shrugging. “Fuck it, sure. There could be worse things,” he said with a shrug.

            Both Gavin and Jeremy sighed in relief, smiling at Lindsey as Ray. Of course, they didn’t get off that easily. Lindsey wanted to know everything including some things that made a blush cover Gavin’s entire torso. Lindsey did not ease up on the teasing when she caught Jeremy staring as the blush traveled down.

            Ray snorted, shaking his head as Gavin happily answered all of Lindsey’s questions, making Jeremy groan and hide his face in his hands. He chimed in a few times with his own questions, smirking when Jeremy glared at him.

            When lunch rolled around, Lindsey volunteered to go get them food from the vender on the actual beach. Ray watched to make sure she got off the rock safely before looking back at Jeremy and Gavin.

            Gavin had slid back into the water and was holding his arms out to Jeremy. “It’s cold, Gav,” Jeremy whined, setting his hands on the edge of the rock.

            “Come oooon,” Gavin pouted, making grabby hands at Jeremy, “It’s not that bad, I’ll keep you warm.”

            Jeremy blushed, then blushed more when Ray snorted. Grumbling, he lifted himself up and slipped into the water. Gavin grinned brightly, wrapping his arms tightly around Jeremy and leaning back.

            Ray gagged loudly as Jeremy snuggled into Gavin’s chest as they floated in the water. Gavin smirked at him and stuck his tongue out as Jeremy hid his face.

            Chuckling, Ray shook his head at them and stood. He grabbed his DS from his jacket and settled himself between the two rocks again. Other than the crash of the waves and the quiet murmuring from Gavin and Jeremy, the beach was nearly silent. The occasional yell from the kids reached them faintly but Ray tuned everything out as he focused on his game.

            Everything was peaceful until a sharp and loud “Dun Dun!” echoed around them. Ray jumped and looked up as Jeremy and Gavin tensed and gave each other panicked looks.

            “Gav?” Jeremy said slowly, siting up as much as he could, “Where is he?”

            Gavin held Jeremy tighter as someone humming the _Jaws_ theme song started to get louder and louder. “Guys?” Ray said slowly, shutting his DS and sitting up.

            “Where is he Gavin?” Jeremy said, looking up at Gavin.

            Gavin was scanning the water. As Ray stood to edge closer, a man with long, tied back black hair and piercing blue eyes burst from the water making Gavin squawk in fear and dump Jeremy right into the water.

            Ray had jumped slightly, blinking as Gavin raced to grab Jeremy who was pushing himself back up to the surface. The man was laughing lightly, black around his eyes and slits on his ribs. He had similar slabs of skin on his forearms as Gavin.

            “Ryan!” Gavin scowled, cradling Jeremy to his chest again.

            Ray bit his lip then started to crack up. As a laugh burst form him, both mermen and Jeremy snapped to look at him in varying degrees of shock. Ryan was tense and his eyes were wide. He sunk into the water until only the top of his head and his eyes were visible.

            Ray snorted and laughed harder as Ryan held onto the edge of the rock and narrowed his eyes at him. He was wiggling in the water, a long tale stretching out behind him. “That was hilarious,” Ray grinned, walking over to their bags as Gavin helped Jeremy back onto the rock, Ryan still watching Ray.

            “Of course you found that funny,” Jeremy huffed, hugging himself and shivering.

            “You alright, love?” Gavin cooed, hugging Jeremy’s waist.

            Ray gagged at the same time Ryan rolled his eyes. Dropping a towel onto Jeremy’s head as he passed, Ray crouched down and looked at Ryan. The merman’s head snapped to him and narrowed his eyes at him.

            Ray chuckled and sat cross-legged in the shallow water, DS back in the pocket of his hoodie. “You one of Gavin’s friends?” he said, watching Ryan move from side to side in the water.

            Ryan just continued to stare up at Ray for a moment before hesitantly holding his arm out to him. Ray blinked at his hand and smiled, shaking his hand. “I’m Ray,” he said as he shook Ryan’s hand.

            Ryan nodded, letting Ray’s hand go, quickly disappearing into the water. Ray frowned and looked over at Gavin and Jeremy who were talking softly again. Rolling his eyes, he moved to stand when two hands burst form the water.

            Flailing back from his toes to his ass, Ray watched Ryan pull himself out of the water and sit awkwardly on the edge of the cliff. His had broad shoulders and a toned chest. His tail was much longer than Gavin’s with dorsal fins and a strong tail fin. He gave Ray a sharp-toothed, sheepish smile.

            “Sorry, I needed to breathe,” Ryan said, playing with the tip of his hair.

            Ray furrowed his brow and carefully scooted closer. “You needed to breathe?” he said, crossing his legs again.

            “I’m a shark,” Ryan said, gesturing down to the white and gray of his tail, “I can only breathe on land with my nose. Since I was in the water, I was having a hard time breathing holding still like that.”

            “Oh,” Ray said, eyes widening, “That’s kind of cool.”

            Ryan coughed awkwardly, smiling at Ray. “Thank you,” he said, tugging at the black strands.

            They were silent for a moment, Ray studying Ryan while the shark’s tail nervously shifted in the water. Jeremy and Gavin were too caught up with each other to notice them. “So, how do you know _Jaws_?” Ray said after a moment.

            Ryan’s shoulders dropped and sighed. “I once found a boat filled with humans watching it on their TV,” he said, studying Ray’s face and legs, “I thought it was hilarious and watched it with them then scared the shit out of the once the movie was over.”

            Ray snorted and laughed, grinning at Ryan. “That’s awesome,” he said when Ryan tilted his head at him.

            Ryan smiled and shrugged. “Are you Jeremy’s friend?” he said carefully, glancing at Gavin and Jeremy.

            “Yeah, I’m his roommate,” Ray said, folding his legs up and wrapping his arms around them.

            “Roommate?” Ryan said, frowning, “You, live together? That’s what that means, right?”

            “Yep,” Ray said with a nod, “We live in an apartment, it’s a segmented area just for us.”

            Ryan nodded slowly, pursing his lips. “Interesting. I forget humans don’t have communal land.”

            “We’re too private for that,” Ray shrugged, squeezing his legs, “I’m guessing you don’t know much about humans?”

            “Jeremy was the first I actually interacted with,” Ryan said, nodding to the pair still in their own world, “Before I just scared them.”          

            “Sounds like a good plan,” Ray said, chuckling slightly, “So I’m guessing them dating isn’t normal?”

            “No, we don’t typically take human mates,” Ryan said, watching Gavin tackle Jeremy in a hug, soaking the towel completely, “It works for them though.”

            Ray watched Jeremy laugh and half-heartedly push at Gavin. Shaking his head, he looked back at Ryan and studied his strong jaw and bright eyes. He was hot for a deadly man-fish.

            “What the fuck?!” Lindsey’s voice startled all of them. Ryan grabbed Ray’s legs and peaked over his shoulder at Lindsey as she stalked over with a pout and four hot dogs in hand. “Why do the two of you get hot fish boyfriends?”

            Ray rolled his eyes as Ryan made a low, confused chittering noise. “This is Ryan, Gavin’s friends. You missed him scaring the shit out of them.”

            “I didn’t shit!” Gavin squawked, pouting even as Jeremy shook his head and let his head fall back onto the rock.

            “Good for you,” Lindsey huffed, tossing Ray one of the hot dogs, “Do I need to feed him too?”

            Ray chuckled and looked at Ryan who was staring at the tinfoil wrapped food in his hands with a wrinkled nose. “Nah, I don’t think so,” Ray said, patting Ryan’s shoulder.

            Ryan flinched and looked up at Ray, their noses just barely brushing. He smiled sheepishly and backed away, settling on the ledge again.

            Lindsey plopped down next to Ray, passing Gavin and Jeremy their food. “Hot dogs!” Gavin gasped, ripping into the tinfoil once the food was in hand. Jeremy laughed and shook his head before thanking Lindsey and eating his own lunch.

            “So what are you?” Lindsey said to Ryan who was still partially hiding behind Ray’s knees.

            “I’m a shark,” Ryan said carefully, frowning as Ray unwrapped his dog and took a bite, “What is that?”

            “It’s a hot dog,” Lindsey said, opening her own, “Its food.”

            Ryan wrinkled his nose again as Ray laughed. “It’s not actually made out of a dog,” he said, smiling when Ryan’s head snapped to him in surprise, “It’s made out of the left overs of other animals.”

            Ryan looked at Ray in horror for a moment. “You eat that?” he said, scowling as Ray nodded.

            “It’s not too bad,” Ray shrugged, holding the other end of his hot dog out to Ryan, “Try it.”

            Ryan leaned closer and sniffed the dog before yanking his head back and shaking his head. “I’ll stick to fish,” he said, rubbing under his nose.

            “Wimp,” Lindsey mumbled, taking another bite out of her dog.

            Ryan scowled at her as Ray laughed and shook his head. They stayed until the sun started to set. Ryan stuck to Ray’s side, asking him questions about the human world and watching him play a few games on his DS. When he got cold, Ryan snuggled closer, grumbling about human’s inability to regulate their body temperature.

            Lindsey bounced between talking to Ray and Ryan and Jeremy and Gavin who mostly stayed in their own little world. “Alright, I can’t take those two anymore,” Lindsey huffed, frowning at Jeremy and Gavin, “They’re rotting my teeth.”

            Ray chuckled and tucked his DS away as Ryan frowned, staying snuggled against Ray’s side. “Will you both be back?” he said, looking more at Ray.

            “We’re staying the weekend, aren’t we?” Ray said, looking up at Lindsey who nodded.

            “Yep, you pack our shit up while I separate the love birds, fish, whatever,” Lindsey snorted as she edged toward Jeremy and Gavin.

            Ray nodded and slipped away from Ryan, his side damp and cold. He shivered as he gathered up the towel they had left to dry on the rocks and the other towels they had scattered around.

            Ryan slipped back into the water and peaked over the edge to watch Ray again. Once everything was crammed back into the bags, Ray looked over and smiled at Ryan. “See you tomorrow?”

            The tips of Ryan’s smile just breached the water before he nodded and disappeared under the water. Ray shook his head and watched Lindsey drag Jeremy from Gavin.

            When they finally arrived at the hotel, they were all tired and had sand in places sand shouldn’t be. In the morning, they had a big breakfast at a nearby diner before going back to the beach. Even less people were at the beach as they climbed the rocks and settled into the alcove.

            Gavin appeared about an hour later, talking with all three of them. “Ryan will be around,” Gavin said, when saw Ray scan the water for the hundredth time, “He does his own thing the knob.”

            “Where do you hear these words?” Lindsey laughed as she ruffled Gavin’s drying hair, “You’re not using them right.”

            “Yes I am!” Gavin squawked, pouting when Jeremy started to laugh.

            Ray shook his head and smiled, looking into the water again. About an hour later, when Jeremy and Gavin were being cute again and Lindsey was distracting Ray from his game, two heads poked out of the water.

            One had bright blue eyes that locked on Ray nearly immediately and the other pair looked bored, brown hair clinging to pale skin. “Micoo!” Gavin gasped, nearly capsizing himself and Jeremy.

            The new merman scoffed at them, swimming over and steadying Gavin. “Fucking idiot,” the merman grumbled.

            “Lindsey! Ray!” Gavin squawked, setting Jeremy on the rock, “This is Michael!”

            Michael snorted, eyes narrowed at Ray and Lindsey as they came over. Ryan was still peeking out of the water, watching Ray closely. Once Ray was settled on the edge of the rock, Ryan shifted closer, one arm wrapping tightly around Ray’s leg.

            Ray smiled at Ryan before looking at Michael who was studying them both. He had gills on his ribs and yellow and black stripped skin on his forearms. His tail glowed yellow and black under the water, the tail fin thin and nearly translucent. “He’s an angel fish!” Gavin said proudly, hooking his arm on Michael’s neck.

            “We shouldn’t be interacting with humans,” Michael grumbled, eyeing Lindsey carefully, “Much less dating them,” he snapped, glaring at Gavin.

            Gavin pouted and started to whine. Ray chuckled and shook his head as Jeremy explained to Lindsey that he had only met Michael once. Ray was about to ask about Michael’s fish half when something heavy and wet landed on his lap.

            A shiver shot up his spine as he slowly looked down at the dead fish on his leg. The gray scales scraped against his leg as the water gently moved the fish. Deep, red, teeth marks marred the fish’s skin, oozing blood.

            Ray felt his breakfast jump into his throat and his face paled as he stared at the fish with barely controlled disgust. Ryan was peaking up at him with wide eyes, begging for approval.

            “Uh, thanks, Ryan,” Ray croaked, carefully trying to push the fish off of his leg with one finger.

            Ryan’s eyes lit up brightly and he smiled. He took the fish and threw it onto the rock next to their bag. He looked back up at Ray with a bright smile.

            Swallowing hard, Ray awkwardly patted Ryan’s head. As Lindsey and Michael started talking and Jeremy and Gavin went back off to their happy place, Ryan pulled himself up next to Ray and asked more questions about what being human was like. At some point, Ray had pulled out his phone and the two of them were Googling random questions neither had an answer to.

            When Jeremy mentioned leaving, all of the mermen pouted. Michael had made himself comfortable on Lindsey’s lap, arms folded and snuggled close. Ryan was practically wrapped around Ray, chin resting on Ray’s shoulder as he blinked slowly at Jeremy.

            “We’ve got to go before it gets dark,” Jeremy sighed, running his fingers through Gavin’s hair. The merman was pouting up at him. “We also have to leave tomorrow.”

            “What?” Michael snarled, sitting up slightly.

            Ryan tensed beside Ray, chittering. Ray felt his chest vibrate against his shoulder. “We’ll be back next weekend,” Lindsey said, smiling down at Michael, “Promise.”

            “Fucking better,” Michael grumbled, sinking back down. The mermen watched them as they packed up and left. They all waved at the mermen, Ray trying to smile for Ryan although the shark was almost pouting at him.

            The car ride home was fairly silent the next day. “You should have told us sooner,” Lindsey scolded Jeremy when they stopped at a small restaurant for lunch.

            “Well, you know now,” Jeremy sighed, frowning down at the advertisements on the placemat.

            “We’ll be back next weekend,” Ray said, rolling his phone in his hand, “If we don’t I think we’ll have a war with the ocean on our hands.

            Lindsey and Jeremy smiled up at him, sitting up slightly. The week creeped by. Once Friday came around, all three of them had their bags packed and swim trunks on before their workday had even finished.

            They left that night and kept each other awake in their excitement. Ray sorted through the DS games he had brought, trying to decide which one Ryan could play first.

            In the morning, exhausted but excited, they went down to the alcove. Michael and Gavin appeared first, smiling up at Jeremy and Lindsey. Ray let them alone, playing on his DS. Excitement and nerves curled in his stomach.

            He heard the water slosh and looked up only to freeze and wrinkle his nose. Ryan was peaking over the ledge again, another dead fish floating in the water. “Ah,” he said, swallowing down his breakfast once again, “Um, thanks?”  
            Ryan smiled brightly and just like the first time, threw the fish over to the bag before pulling himself up onto the ledge. “How are you, Ray?”

            “I’m alright,” Ray said, shivering before trying to ignore the blood still lingering in the water, “You?”

            “Bored,” Ryan huffed before smiling down at Ray, “But now you’re back.”

            Ray felt his cheeks heat as he smiled. “I brought those games I told you about,” he said, pulling them out of his hoodie pocket. The air was too cool for him not to wear the purple jacket even though his legs were dangling in the water.

            “Are you sure I can play them?” Ryan said, watching Ray save the game he was playing before switching the cartridges.

            “Sure,” Ray said with a shrug. He started up the game and held his DS out to Ryan. He leaned closer as Ryan took the device and stared skeptically at the screen. “You’ll do fine.”

            “These buttons are small,” Ryan snorted, tapping the buttons as the loading screen played.

            “You have giant fingers,” Ray snorted, tapping the touch screen when the start menu appeared. He coached Ryan through the game, laughing when Ryan made faces at the strange characters.

            “Not half bad,” Ray said, taking the DS from Ryan. The red light had started blinking at them and there wasn’t an outlet to use the charger.

            “Is the headache normal?” Ryan said, smiling sheepishly at Ray as he rubbed his forehead.

            “Yeah, you’ve never played before,” Ray said, placing his DS in his jacket pocket.

            Ryan smiled and watched Ray pull his jacket off and carefully toss it onto the bags. He edged closer and wrapped around him again. “Why are you so cold?” he mumbled, nuzzling his temple.

            “Have you seen me?” Ray snorted, leaning into Ryan slightly, “I’m ten pounds soaking wet. There’s nothing on me to keep me warm.”

            “You should stop that,” Ryan said, smiling when Ray laughed.

            “Oh yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Ray said, shaking his head, “Why the fuck are you so buff?”

            “Well, I have to swim everywhere,” Ryan said, poking his own abs, “Have you tried to  swam through the water at high speeds? It’s tough.”

            “I can barely doggy paddle,” Ray sorted, sighing when Ryan furrowed his brows at him, “Ever see a dog swim?”

            “From a distance,” Ryan said with a nod. Before Ray could explain he silently snorted and pressed his palm into his forehead. “Don’t, I figured it out.”

            “Good job!” Ray said, rolling his eyes and patting Ryan’s hand.

            Ryan snorted and puffed into Ray’s hair, making the strands flip up and rest against his nose. Ray smiled and looked over at the others. Michael was telling Lindsey a story, arms flailing in the air as Lindsey laughed. Gavin and Jeremy were drifting around the pool, talking softly.

            “Hey, why is Gavin’s nose fucking massive?” Ray said, looking up at Ryan.

            Ryan choked on a laugh, pressing his lips into a thin line as he looked down at Ray. “He doesn’t have gills.” Ray stared at Ryan blankly until he continued. “He’s a dolphin and so, like a dolphin, he can only breathe when he breaches the surface.”

            “So his nose is massive so he can breathe normally?” Ray said, feeling a laugh claw at his throat, “Seriously? That has a practical use?”  
            “Yes?” Ryan said, smiling and shaking his head, “So does your nose.”

            “Yeah, but my nose isn’t the size of a toucan’s beak,” Ray snorted, shaking his head, “How did you become friends with Gavin anyway? I thought sharks and dolphins hated each other.”

            “We are an odd pack, aren’t we?” Ryan said, looking over at the others as well, “Don’t get me wrong, Gavin drives me insane, but they’ve just hung around. Michael and Gavin found me when I was alone and just stuck around.”

            Ray nodded slowly, watching Ryan for a moment, smiling slightly at the fondly annoyed look in his eyes. “So you just put up with them?”

            “Some days,” Ryan said, eyes snapping back to Ray and he smiled, “Other days, I’d rip their heads off if I could.”

            Ray laughed and rolled his eyes as Ryan gave him his sharp grin. “GAVIN!” Michael roared, startling them.

            They looked over as Michael tackled Gavin and Jeremy as Lindsey laughed. Ryan sighed and shook his head as all three of them surfaced, Jeremy trying to flee toward the rock as Gavin squawked for Michael’s mercy. Ray smiled as Lindsey helped Jeremy up and rubbed his arms as he shivered.

            They went back to the beach week after week. Every day, Michael and Gavin would appear first or would be waiting for them. Ryan always came later. One day, as Ray waited for Ryan to appear as the other couples were disgustingly cute, he considered all of the dead fish Ryan had brought him.

            “Hey Michael,” Ray said, turning to look at Michael, “Is Ryan always late because he’s getting those fish he always brings me?”

            “Huh? Oh, yeah. Probably,” Michael said, blinking slowly at Ray from Lindsey’s lap. The water was colder now so all three humans were wearing wet suits that kept the heat in.

            “Why does he even do that?” Ray said, frowning down at Michael.

            “He’s a shark,” Michael said, closing his eyes and smiling as Lindsey started carding her fingers through his hair.

            “You guys need to learn that just stating what type of fish you are does not explain anything,” Ray sighed, frowning at Michael.

            Michael snorted and sat up slightly, catching Lindsey’s hand and tangling their fingers. “He’s proving he can be a good mate. He’s courting you.”

            Ray blinked slowly at Michael. “Sorry?”

            “As a shark, he needs to prove to the person he’s courting that he can be a good mate, can provide food and shit,” Michael said, smirking up at Ray.

            “Daw, look at you with your shark boyfriend trying to feed you,” Lindsey cooed, smirking at Ray.

            Ray felt the heat spread from the bridge of his nose to his ears then down his neck. “You shut up with your angel fish,” he snapped, folding his arms.

            Lindsey and Michael still laughed as they blushed slightly. They grinned at each other before entering their own little world again.

            Ray watched them for a moment before huffing slightly. He smiled to himself, pressing his lips together to hide a smile. When Ryan popped out of the water with a fish in his mouth Ray sighed and laughed lightly.

            Ryan set the fished down on Ray’s lap once again, giving him the same look he always did. “Ryan, you don’t need to prove to me that you can feed me,” Ray said, tossing the fish over by the bags, used to Ryan’s shit by now.

            Ryan’s eyes widened and he sunk more into the water. Ray smiled at him and ran his fingers through Ryan’s ponytail that was floating in the water behind him. “I already know that you’re a big, powerful shark. You’re already a good mate.”

            Ryan continued to stare at Ray, eyes following the blush racing down Ray’s neck. The longer Ryan stared at him, the darker the blush became. He jumped when Ryan disappeared under the water. He frowned until Ryan placed his hands on either side of him and pulled himself out of the water.

            Ryan smirked down at Ray as he leaned closer, sharp teeth glittering in the light. “Good to know,” he almost purred, leaning closer.

            Ray looked between Ryan’s eyes before looking down at his lips. Swallowing his nerves, he reached up and cupped Ryan’s jaw. He pulled him closer and kissed him, ignoring Lindsey squealing and cheering as Ryan kissed back.

            Ryan leaned his full weight on Ray, making him fall back and extremely glad his DS and phone weren’t on him. Ryan’s arms wrapped around his waist as Ray’s fingers slipped into his hair. Ray had a faint thought of Ryan’s teeth cutting his skin, but even as Ryan’s teeth brushed his lips, no pain followed and he forgot about his worries.

            When they parted, Michael, Lindsey, Gavin, and Jeremy were all smirking at them. Ryan chittered at them as Ray hid his face in his chest. He felt Ryan’s chuckle rumble through his chest before he was being picked up.

            He yelped as water covered him to his hip and the cold slowly seeped in. He clung to Ryan’s shoulders as he slowly floated them around in the water. He looked up at Ryan who smiled back at him, calloused fingers carding through Ray’s hair.

            Ray slowly smiled and snuggled into Ryan’s chest. Ryan’s need to constantly move, relaxed him as they talked quietly. Gavin and Jeremy stayed out of their way near Michael and Lindsey.

            Ryan nuzzled his hair and chittered again. Ray chuckled and leaned up to press a soft kiss to Ryan’s lips. He couldn’t wait for summer when the water would be warmer.


	18. Mute

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Writing had never failed him before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment! 
> 
> Want to read more of my stuff? Please visit: http://vidparson.tumblr.com/

           The beginning was simple. Some days he just didn’t feel like saying anything at all. There was nothing he could contribute, nothing important he just had to say. So he said nothing at all and when the time came when he was ready to talk, everyone else was just talking too fast for him to interject. So he stayed silent.

            Sometimes people would ask for his words, waiting patiently for him to consider what he wanted to say. Sometimes everyone just kept talking and talking and his opinions didn’t matter so he didn’t bother, there wasn’t a reason to.

            Ryan spoke when he needed to and that was alright with him. He could still communicate with funny faces or hand gestures. He could type and write and that was all he really needed. He needed his fingers and his paper, digital or physical, and he was set.

            He didn’t realize when he just stopped talking altogether. He couldn’t remember the last time he muttered even a sound to something someone said. Even his laugh had gotten eerily silent.

            He only realized when people would get frustrated, demanding to know what was wrong, why wasn’t he talking? Why did they even have to wait for him to type? No one was patient enough to let him finish writing on occasion.

            Someone suggested he learn how to sign if he was being so difficult as to not speak. He was surprised to learn how natural signing felt. He talked with his hands anyway, might as well actually communicate with them.

            However, people weren’t willing to try and understand his signing either. What a great suggestion that turned out to be virtually useless. People weren’t patient with him so he didn’t bother with them either. They weren’t saying anything important anyway. Many conversations had gone in circles, mainly about what his voice used to sound like.

            He didn’t really care. He chose to stop talking even if he didn’t realize until later. He could communicate a multitude of ways. If someone really wanted to talk to him, they would make the effort.

            Only a few people did make that effort throughout the years. There were girls and guys in his classes that were determined to flirt despite his slow response. A deaf person or two were relieved to have someone to sign to.

            The handlers he had in high school were harsh and just as annoyed with him as he was with them. He didn’t need a handler to talk to people, he could do that well enough on his own. Yet the school system insisted until they realized he didn’t even try communicating with a handler hovering over him with a disgusted scowl.

            A few people tried to speak for him, thinking they understood what he was thinking. Occasionally he considered breaking his silence to scream in frustration. Once, he almost did. He was paired with a girl on a project in one of his favorite classes. The teacher was laid back and always waited for Ryan to type out his words (the only good thing the public school system did for him was allow him an iPad to communicate with).

            The girl didn’t have the teacher’s patience. When the teacher would come around to talk to the different groups, any questions she asked Ryan, the girl would shoot off the answer even when they were opinion questions. Ryan was grateful that the teacher would wait for his response anyway, but he wanted to throttle the girl sometimes.

            He was never more relieved to graduate and leave high school behind. College, he had hoped, would be different. In many ways, university was different. He wasn’t expected to talk if he didn’t really want to. Professors were just happy he still tried to participate in class with his computer.

            Every year, he ran into that one professor that wanted him to talk and would fail him if he didn’t. Not one to back down, he pushed back, persistent not to talk. Sometimes he used the voice over function on his computer during discussions. Most of those professors begrudgingly had to accept that as his participation.

            One professor was actually going to fail him. He had to pull the support of the disabilities services of the college in order to keep his good grades. As a result, he had to go to the university’s therapist.

            The therapist was stumped by his reasons for not speaking and was determined to “fix him”. They so much as said to his face that he was broken. He didn’t punch the bastard, but he definitely wanted to.

            Amongst his classes and being told he was a broken idiot, he found a class he hadn’t thought he would enjoy. He had to take another art class and he was _not_ sitting in yet another drawing class where he would butcher the human form, _again_.

            No, his advisor was kind of enough to suggest a creative writing class. Ryan loved writing his words so he assumed he could at least give the class his all and hope he passed. No one warned him that the teacher was a hard ass. An old bastard stuck in his ways and ideas who was up at three in the morning just to go to bed at one in the afternoon.

            The class was at an ungodly hour he couldn’t believe he got up at for four years in high school. Every other morning he would wander into glass and drop into his seat feeling like a giant pile of goop. He blinked at the professor, only half listening to his lectures on creative writing.

            They only had three days of lecture before they would start writing. He felt despised by the old fart. He kept calling on him when everyone else gave answers he didn’t like. He would wait for Ryan to type out his response and seemed disgruntled with his answers more often than not.

            He didn’t realize until the girl sitting next to him pointed out that the professor never actually said he was wrong did he realize that he wasn’t hated. No, the old coot thought he was smart and thus was harder on him. He wasn’t sure if that was better.

            Regardless, when they finally started writing, he sat in front of his computer in the library and stared at his screen for an hour. They were starting with poems. He could write whatever he wanted, however he wanted. He just didn’t know what he wanted to write.

            Was there something special he had to do? Some strange way of thinking? Fed up with trying to figure out some unspoken secret of the universe, he just took the first line his brain produced and went with whatever his fingers decided to type.

            He turned in his poem like everyone else, multiple copies for everyone in the class. He took the other’s poems and read them. One was full of grammatical errors while another had his heart racing and brought tears to his eyes. The other poems were everything in between. He suddenly didn’t feel that great about the poem he just decided was good enough.

            He dragged his feet more than normal when he went to class the next time. He sat down and glanced at the other students just to find everyone, including the professor, staring at him. He shied away, hiding behind his computer screen.

            Slowly, everyone returned to their conversations and Ryan focused on bringing up his text to speech program. He typed in his thoughts for each of the poems in the order the professor had written on the board so that they were at the ready.

            He frowned when he realized that he was last. When the class began, he started to play with the peeling stickers on his computer. The stiff edges scraped against his fingertips, catching on dry skin and his nail.

            He offered his opinions, passing the edited poems along to the proper owners. When his turn came, the professor cleared his throat and read his poem for him. Biting his lip, he looked at his classmates, finding all of them either with their eyes closed or glazed over.

            When the last word tumbled from the professor’s lips, he set the paper down and looked him right in the eyes. “Ryan, have you ever written anything like this before?”

            Frowning, Ryan tapped at his keys quickly. A robotic no echoed through his computer speakers.

            The professor nodded as a few classmates gaped at him. He swallowed and quickly typed, eyes still locked with his professor’s over the screen. _Why? Was it that bad?_ his computer stuttered out.

            The professor leaned back, eyes widening behind his massive glasses that rested on his cheeks. “What? No! This was arguably the best poem,” he said, shaking his head.

            Ryan blinked at him slowly, fingers trembling as they hovered over his keyboard. A few classmates were nodding along while others were scowling. What the hell was he supposed to say to that?

            There were only a few complaints, only one word he could change to make the poem just that much better. “I’ve never felt what it’s like to be mute,” one of his classmates said, “But this made me feel like I had always known the feeling.”

When he got the edits back, some were completely blank. Ryan stared at his professor’s scribbled lettering telling him to speak to him after class. He carefully placed the papers next to his computer and waited patiently as the class ended and his classmates wandered out.

            He stayed where he was as the professor spoke to other students before turning toward him. They stared at each other for a long moment, the professor leaning up against the table in the front of the room, his lips twisted into a thoughtful sneer that Ryan learned was just his face.

            “I ran your poem through a program that compares it to other works on the internet,” his professor said, fingers tapping the edge of the table, “Nothing even came close.”

            Ryan frowned and nodded, fingers hovering over his keys. The professor stared at him for a long moment before sighing, pushing off of the table. “What’s your major?”

            Without hesitation or looking away, Ryan typed at his computer. _Computer science._

            “And you’re a junior?” his professor said, snapping his jaw to the side.

            There was the tick of Ryan’s keyboard. _Yes._

            The professor pursed his lips and nodded. He sat the chalk he had been playing with all class on the ledge under the chalkboard. “Would you be able to do another year of college?”

            Ryan’s brow furrowed, hesitating before pecking at his keys again. _I can, probably. Why?_

            “I think you should take up a creative writing major,” his professor said, turning to look at him. He smiled at Ryan for the first time since the class began. “Just, think about it.”

            Ryan watched him leave the classroom, fingers trembling over the keys. He hesitantly stood and left the room. He sat in his dorm dazed for a few minutes before sending an email to both his parents and his advisor.

            His parents weren’t necessarily happy that he wanted to peruse another major so late in his college career. However, his advisor pointed out that he could get a computer company to help pay for his education.

            His professor was ecstatic when Ryan told him he would be trying for a creative writing major. His classmates either admired or despised him the longer class went on. When they transferred from poetry to prose, his work only improved according to some. Others just wanted to find something wrong.

            “You’re mute but your dialog is just so natural,” one of his classmates told him, eyes wide with awe.

            Ryan nodded with a furrowed brow and awkward smile. Just because he was mute didn’t mean he couldn’t communicate in a natural fashion. Then again, with how awkward and stiff the dialog of the other stories sounded, he wondered if being mute actually gave him an advantage.

            Regardless, his professor proudly had one of his works published in the school’s creative writing book. By the end of the semester, he had aced his class and was moving onto the fiction workshop with the same professor.

            The higher level class was more daunting. Everyone was more critical of his work and everyone was better than his previous classmates. He wasn’t deterred. He had written words all his life. He enjoyed sign language, but he found himself writing more often than not. He had needed written words all his life, he wasn’t about to let them fail him now.

            His extra years of college served him well. By his last semester, he had published two novellas that were rapidly gaining popularity. His professor wasn’t happy with them. Ryan had moved away from his idea of a traditional romantic relationships and characters. He was still proud of Ryan for blowing past his prowess as a writer within only three years.

            Due to his agreement with a computer company, he had to work with them for five more years to pay off their support of his education. He was still able to find himself enough time to write more, longer stories.

            He bounced around publishers for a long time. Many of them loved his work but found his silence hard to work with. Eventually he was given to a new publisher, Geoff. He was a laid back man with an extraordinary amount of patience.

            He was happy to read Ryan’s work and communicate however was easier for them. He was a laid back man who was strict enough to keep Ryan’s work at the high level he had gotten to.

            After five years, Ryan was free from his contract with the computer company and could move into a nice, small house he had been eyeing since before the owner’s put the place on the market. The house was only two stories high and narrow and after some renovations, there was a big basement and small rooms.

            The kitchen was the biggest room on the first floor with beautiful marble countertops and black tile floor. The living room and dining room were the same room. One of the two rooms in the upstairs was turned into a cozy office while the other which was attached to the bathroom remained a bedroom. The basement was turned into a gaming room with a big TV and every console he ever wanted.

            He smiled up at his little house once he had everything the way he wanted. He never felt out of place like he had at his apartment and everything was exactly where he needed it to be.

            After moving in about a year ago, Geoff called him out of breath the hour he was supposed to be at the house. “Sorry Ryan, I’m sending my assistant to your house,” he said, shouting in the background making the phone screech with feedback, “One of my other clients is having, issues.”

            Ryan frowned and quickly typed out his response on his cell phone. The computerized voice spoke from the phone laying in front of him. _That’s alright, good luck._

            Geoff laughed lightly, something slamming on the ground with a heavy thud. “Thanks Ryan, Ray’ll be here soon.”

            Ryan nodded as Geoff hung up. He had heard about Ray from Geoff. He was usually off talking to other writers or running errands.

            Ryan waited only half an hour before his doorbell chimed. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door with his phone in hand and an awkward smile. He hoped the reason he hadn’t met Ray before wasn’t because he would find Ryan’s silence idiotic like so many others.

            Ray smiled back at Ryan, brown eyes bright behind thick, black rimmed glasses. His hair was ruffled from fingers running through in frustration. He had a scruffy, short beard that was neatly trimmed. He was tuggingat the tight collar of his white shirt, trying not to pull at the tie patterned with roses. His gray suit jacket hung off of his shoulders unbuttoned, the bottoms of his gray dress pants a slightly darker shade.

            “Hello! I’m Ray,” the young man said, holding his hand out to Ryan, “You’re Ryan, right?”

            Ryan nodded and took Ray’s hand in one firm shake. His hands were so much smaller than Ryan’s, but they were calloused and strong.

            “Nice to meet you,” Ray said, trying to keep the near bursting black case tucked under his arm from slipping free, “You’re Geoff’s favorite client.”

            Ryan raised an amused eyebrow before shaking his head and stepping aside. He waved for Ray to enter, looking down at the top of the young man’s head as he stepped inside his house. He closed the door and quickly tapped at his phone. _Do you want anything to eat or drink?_ his phone spat out as he held the device up.

            Ray blinked at his phone before smiling sheepishly at Ryan. “Do you have any water? It’s been a long day.”

            Ryan smiled and nodded, he tapped at his phone again. _Sure, my office is upstairs the first door on the left. I’ll be right up._ The computerized voice struggled with certain words, slowing down and slurring letters. His computer was much better.

            Ray nodded and headed for the stairs as Ryan slipped into the kitchen. He grabbed two water bottles from his fridge before digging around in his pantry for snacks. A bag of pretzels tucked under his arm and a bottle in each hand, he jogged up the stairs

            Ray was sitting on the couch across from Ryan’s desk, the black case open across his lap. A few manuscripts were threatening to spill all over the floor as Ray searched for some papers. Ryan set one of the water bottles on the side table on Ray’s right along with the pretzel bag.

            Ray jumped at the crinkle of the bag and looked up at Ryan with wide eyes. He looked down at the table and laughed lightly. “Thanks,” he said, putting the black case on the other side of the couch as Ryan sat at his desk.

            Ryan smiled as Ray cracked open the bottle and chugged about half before eyeing the bag for a moment. With a sigh, he grabbed the bag and carefully pulled the top open. A pretzel dangling from his lips, Ray grabbed the case and started looking through the papers again.

            Ryan quickly woke his computer up and opened his text to speech program. As he checked his volume, Ray made a victorious noise, pulling papers from the mess. Setting the case aside again, he straightened out the thin manuscript and a scribbled note in Geoff’s handwriting.

            “Okay, so Geoff said that you need to pick up the pace on this story,” Ray said, scanning the note, “And that the chapter you gave him sucked.”

            Ryan sighed and quickly typed _. I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t really expect to write a sequel, nor do I really know what I’m doing,_ his computer responded in a smooth female voice.

            Ray nodded and flipped through the manuscript. “He wants you to rewrite the entire chapter. He can get the date pushed back.”

            Ryan nodded and sighed, he quickly opened his copy of the sequel to a book he didn’t think even needed one. Sure he left the ending open, but not so he could write a sequel. Unfortunately, the publishing company got a significant amount of statics demanding another book so Ryan was stuck.

            “Here’s the manuscript,” Ray said, standing to rest a thin packet of papers on Ryan’s desk. The papers were soaked in red, “Geoff had me edit this one, if that’s alright.”

            Ryan smiled at Ray and flipped through the pages. Ray’s handwriting was somehow messier than Geoff’s but he could read everything. Ray was fairly harsh with his edits, quite a few pointing out plot holes Ryan knew was there but hadn’t bothered to fill. He smiled when he read one note and realized that Ray was suggesting a possible way to fill the hole.

            Ryan quickly skimmed through all of Ray’s notes as the young man nibbled on more pretzels; he smiled as he realized that the comments became more sarcastic further on. _Thank you,_ his computer said after a series of clicks, _I appreciate your notes._

            Ray’s shoulders slumped and he smiled brightly at Ryan. “I’m glad, you’re probably the first not to mind,” he said, playing with the corner of the note, “That’s about it, unless you have some questions?”

            Ryan pursed his lips before flipping through the manuscript again slowly. He read each note, laughing silently at a few of them. When he got to the end, he stared blankly at the corner of the manuscript for a moment before rapidly typing on his computer. _Actually, how do you think the story should go? I have no idea and that’s clearly not working._

            Ray blinked, leaning back slightly. “Oh, uh, I donno,” Ray said slowly with a shrug, “I was happy just leaving the first book alone.”

            Ryan nodded and sighed at the manuscript. _That’s the problem,_ his computer said, _I didn’t want to write a sequel._

            Ray frowned and his eyes glazed over for a moment. “Well, I would like to see more about some of the other characters, honestly. They were off doing other things, I think it would be cool if you focused on them instead.”

            Ryan’s fingers froze over his keyboard as he stared at Ray. Now that was a good idea. He knew, from multiple searches on the internet and one accidental stumble onto Tumblr, that two of his side characters had gained a strange cult-like following.

            Just as Ray was starting to shift nervously, Ryan grinned at him. He rapidly clicked at his computer. _That is a great idea,_ his computer said in a monotone, _Tell Geoff I’ll have half a book ready for him by next week._

            “Oh, what?” Ray said, brow furrowing. He frowned as Ryan’s shoulders shook with silent chuckles as he opened a new document on his computer.

            Clicking back over to his text to speech program, he tapped at his keyboard again. _I know just the characters to focus on, thank you for the idea._

            “Oh, huh,” Ray said slowly, smiling at Ryan, “I’m glad I could help. Who are you going to do?”

            Ryan paused, staring blankly at his computer for a moment. Geoff mainly left him to his own devices. He hadn’t discussed his ideas with anyone for quite some time. Glancing at Ray and his intrigued smile, Ryan slowly smiled back and raised a finger before rapidly typing away.

            He and Ray talked for much longer than Ryan was used to talking to anyone. The young man was always patient, waiting for Ryan to finish typing before speaking. They discussed how the story should progress and ideas for the side characters.

            By the time Ray got a call from Geoff and had to leave, Ryan had pages of notes for his characters. _Thank you,_ Ryan’s phone croaked as he walked Ray to the door, _You really helped me._

            Ray smiled sheepishly, hugging the black case to his chest. “It’s not a problem, I’m glad I could help.”

            Ryan ruffled Ray’s hair before quickly poking at his phone. _Still, thank you. See you next time?_

            Ray laughed and his shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, if Geoff lets me,” Ray said, edging over to the door as an audible vibration came from his pocket, “See you.”

            Ryan nodded and opened the door for Ray. He closed his door and took the stairs two at a time, rushing into his office. He stayed up writing late into the night. By the time his head was starting to droop, he knew he had to sleep before he spent another night sleeping with his head on the computer, filling pages with letters.

            He spent the week writing for hours and forgetting to eat and sleep. By the time the sound of his doorbell filled the house, he had over half of a book written. He blinked at his office door as the doorbell rang again.

            Shuffling from his office, he opened his front door and smile sheepishly at Ray who stood on the other side. “Hey Ryan,” Ray said smiling up at him before frowning, “Hey, you okay?”

            Ryan nodded and stepped aside for Ray to come in. He dug his phone from his pocket and slowly typed. _Sorry, I was up all night writing._

            Ray frowned as he passed Ryan and edged toward the stairs. “Maybe you shouldn’t have written so much in so little time,” he said, watching Ryan shuffle into his kitchen and grab water and the pretzel bag.

            Ryan shook his head and lead Ray upstairs, trying to type on his phone with his hands full. Ray slipped the bag and one of the water bottles from his arms with an amused look. _I wrote more than I thought,_ Ryan’s phone said as he smiled sheepishly at Ray.

            Ray’s eyes widened before he snorted. “I’m not surprised, Geoff said you were a fast writer.”

            Once in his office, they sat and talked as Ryan printed the manuscript. Once Ray had the manuscript in his hands, a red pen was pulled from his inside jacket pocket. He skimmed through the papers, making a few marks here and there.

            “Wow,” Ray sighed once he got to the last page, “That was so much better than the first one.”

            Ryan grinned and quickly typed. _Thank you, I feel better about it,_ his computer said as he continued to type, _I’m still writing most of it._

            Ray nodded slowly, thumbing through the pages. “Okay, I’ll get this read and back to you by tomorrow?”

            Ryan leaned back slightly, eyebrows raising. _That doesn’t seem like a lot of time, I don’t want to get in the way of your other work._

            Ray smiled and shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. Geoff said I can take this book since we got along so well last week.”

            Ryan slumped in his chair slightly and smiled. He didn’t mind Ray, he didn’t bother him about how he communicated and he actually talked to him. He hadn’t actually talked to someone since he last visited his parents.

            Ray left promising to come the same time tomorrow. Ryan was still surprised when Ray came right on time. He opened the door to a bright smile and a heavily inked manuscript. Somehow, Ray was a harder editor than Geoff but in a very good way. He thought about everything, noticed foreshadowing that even Ryan hadn’t intended.

            They talked about how the story should progress and what needed to change so the story was consistent. Ray had wonderful ideas that Ryan absolutely adored. By the time Ray had to leave, Ryan was actually excited to edit his work for a change.

            Ray continued to come two days a week. One to get a new manuscript then the next to talk about edits and the future of the story. Geoff called occasionally, asking Ryan how Ray was working with him.

            “I’m glad you like him,” Geoff said, he sounded both drunk and exhausted.

            Ryan quickly typed at his phone with a small frown. _Are you okay?_

            “I’m fine,” Geoff sighed, Ryan could almost see him rubbing his face before nursing his whisky again, “It’s just been a rough week. Two other writers have gone off their shit.”

            Ryan sighed and shook his head, gently pushing his phone around before typing. _Well, we’re doing alright._

“And for that I’m glad,” Geoff laughed, yelling suddenly filling the background. Geoff groaned and Ryan chuckled. “Talk to you later.”

            Ryan shook his head as the phone clicked. Scooping his phone up and setting the device aside, he focused on continuing where he left off writing.

* * *

 

            The more Ryan worked with Ray, the more he noticed something. Ray was absolutely adorable. From bringing Ryan dinner after learning he was forgetting to eat to peaking over the manuscript to watch Ryan type.

            Ray was so cute he was killing him. Ryan watched Ray over his computer screen, waiting for the exact moment that he got to the story’s twist he decided to add without letting Ray know. He watched Ray’s brow furrow and his nose wrinkle before his jaw dropped. He looked up at Ryan with wide eyes before laughing.

            Ryan smiled and leaned back against his chair as Ray went on and on about the twist. He watched his hands raise and gesture. He noticed as Ray got halfway through his speech that he was using American Sign Language.

            Ryan suddenly sat up, eyes locked on Ray’s slender hands. Ray kept talking until he looked at Ryan and saw him staring. “What?” Ray said, slightly signing the word.

            Ryan slowly raised his hands and didn’t know what to do at first. His fingers trembled as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do. Ray was starting to look worried until Ryan began to sign. _You know ASL?_ Ryan’s hands moved slowly.

            Ray’s eyes widened before he smiled brightly. _Yeah, my mom was deaf after my douche dad hit her hard. We learned for her._ He sighed rapidly.

            Ryan puffed a silent laugh as Ray continued his rant all in sign. He watched his hands, finding that even though he hadn’t signed to anyone in quite some time, he still remembered everything.

            When Ray left and Ryan sat down to start writing again, he found himself opening a new document and writing his first poem in a long while. In fact, after every time Ray visited, he found himself in a rather poetic mood. Sometimes the poems were romantic and others were serious.

            Ryan watched Ray sign about something or other one night. He had forgotten when they had gotten off track about the story. Ray had brought him dinner again and they sat at his dining room table with empty containers scattered between them.

            _It was fucking ridiculous,_ Ray signed, eyes focused on the table while Ryan sat with his cheek resting in his palm watching Ray with a smile he knew was lovesick, _Asshole even threw something at me._

            Ryan’s shoulders bunched up near his shoulders and he frowned. _Are you alright?_ he sighed, a tightness starting between his shoulders.

            Ray smiled at him and nodded. _I’m fine, they missed, but damn was it freaky. I don’t even know why Geoff even bothers with some of his clients anymore._

Ryan shook his head and shrugged. _He doesn’t give up on us, it’s nice._

Ray froze before he smiled softly. _Yeah, I know. I’m glad he works with you though._

Ryan looked between Ray’s hands and the faint blush threatening to darken on his cheeks the longer Ryan stared. He slowly smiled and raised his hand. _I’m glad I work with him and you too._

Ray’s smile was brilliant. When he left, Ryan found himself mulling over a sonnet about that smile.

            Before long, he found himself with more poems than he knew what to do with. He stared at the document with nearly over sixty thousand words as Geoff went on about what cover he wanted his new book to have.

            _Geoff?_ Ryan typed out, stopping Geoff in his tracks, _I have a fuck ton of poems, do you think you could use them for something?_

There was silence for a long moment before Geoff hummed. “I don’t see why not,” he said, the sound of his mustache being scratched echoed over the phone, “If you already have most of them, we can pick and choose the ones that could go into the book. Although, I’ve never read any poems from you before.”

            Ray stared at one particular poem about one particular young man and blushed. _I got inspired,_ he typed, fingers pausing for a second before he quickly typed again, _I actually have a good idea, and you can’t tell Ray about this._

Geoff thought this was the funniest thing he had ever heard. He agreed not to tell Ray all of the details, but he did tell him that Ryan was going to have a poetry book come out.

            When the first copy of the book was finally finished, Ryan received two versions in the mail. One had a mixture of poems both romantic and serious. The other was ‘A Guide to Woo Anyone’ according to Geoff anyway.

            Ryan flipped through both books, feeling himself blush as he skimmed through the second. Both were dedicated to Ray and the second had a few different poems and an extra something at the very end. Taking a deep breath, he hid the real copy away, staring at the other with a nervous ball curling in his stomach.

            Taking another deep breath, he tried to focus on the book he was supposed to be writing. He only managed a few paragraphs before his hands were shaking too much for him to even try to type correctly.

            He jumped a mile when the doorbell rang. Stumbling down the stairs to nearly throw the door open. Ray blinked up at him in shock before smiling. “You okay Rye?” Ray said, arms full of his black case which was bursting at the seams.

            Ryan nodded a little too quickly, letting Ray in and grabbing their usual water and snacks as Ray went up to the office. Ryan found Ray holding the poetry book, his stomach clenching.

            “Do you mind if I check it out?” Ray said, smiling as Ryan set the water and chip bag down.

            Ryan shook his head and sat at his desk as Ray sat on the couch. He tried his hardest not to hide behind his computer screen but as Ray skimmed through the pages, stopping occasionally and reading, he found himself peaking at Ray over the screen.

            Ray’s brow furrowed as he stopped near the middle of the book. Ryan had a feeling he knew what poem about a radiant smile that Ray was reading and rapidly typed at his computer. Ray’s eyes widened as he reread the poem, the book slowly rising. He peeked up at Ryan over the top of the book. Now the both of them were hiding.

            _Ookl at het nde,_ Ryan’s computer spat out, making him wince.

            Ray’s eyes crinkled at the corner as he smiled. Ryan rushed to retype, feeling his ears burn. He stayed hunched over as his computer spoke again. _Look at the end._

He heard the flip of pages and a quiet gasp. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before he looked over his computer again. The book rested where Ray had been sitting, the young man himself was rounding the desk with a deep blush and adorable smile.

            “You are such a nerd,” Ray breathed, holding his hands out to Ryan.

            Ryan hesitantly took his hands and stood, freezing when Ray pressed their lips together. He felt his heart swell as his eyes fluttered closed and he kissed back, their hands hanging between them.

            When they parted, Ray let his forehead rest against Ryan’s chest, letting his hands go to let Ryan wrap his arms around his waist. Ryan smiled, resting his cheek on the top of Ray’s head as he pulled him close.

            “And yes, I will go on a date with you,” Ray said softly, smiling up at Ryan again before wrapping his arms around Ryan’s shoulders and hugging him tightly.

            Ryan felt his heart beat harder as he picked Ray up and spun him slightly. Ray laughed, fingers curling in Ryan’s shirt. When he looked up, Ryan kissed him again, still holding him inches off of the ground.


	19. Overwatch AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They told him he was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
> 
> This is based off of a couple of different AUs from the Overwatch (more specifically the Reaper76) fandom. Like blind 76 and Reaper literally being smoke. 
> 
> I'm on an Overwatch kick.
> 
> Want to read more of my stuff? Go to http://vidparson.tumblr.com/

           Ray dived into a small room, his smoke trailing after him. Bullets rained past the door. He scowled at the medpack resting in the middle of the floor. Of course Jack would put something like that there for everyone to use. He was too nice.

            Panting hard, his mask made the air blow back and fog his visors slightly. He tossed his pistols away, pulling new and ready to go guns from his holsters. Infinite ammo was the best thing to ever be invented. He didn’t even need to reload his guns anymore.

            He eyed the medpack, debating if he should snatch the glowing white cylinder up. Probably. The Talon agents under him were probably all injured by now with Jack healing all of the Overwatch agents. Especially that damned Soldier 76. He was constantly on Ray’s ass with his damn pulse rifle.

            Ray leaned back against the wall, his head thumping against the wall. His black hood fell over his mask and he sighed. The rifle, the fighting style, familiar but distant. Shaking his head, he took a deep breath and breathed out smoke.

            He scowled as the smoke floated out from under his mask. If this stupid battle went on any longer, he was going to fall apart and reforming again would take far too fucking long. Pushing off of the wall, he tensed when he heard the pound of heavy boots heading his way.

            His arms snapped up with his twin pistols ready to fire as that damned Soldier 76 rounded the corner. Graying, short brown hair was matted with sweat that clung to a furrowed brow. A mask with a red visor over the eyes covered most of the man’s face.

            A red, white, and blue leather jacket fit strong arms and a thin torso well, a giant 76 sowed into the back. The heavy rifle was pointed right at Ray, the barrel shaking slightly. The soldier’s black pants were ripped and starting to darken with a red tint. Metal boots had drips of blood slowly running down the sides. The soldier’s red gloves shined more than Ray remembered.

            The soldier was breathing hard, staring Ray down over the top of his gun. The visor seemed to be part of his face, the hooks running the length of his jaw. He couldn’t see the soldier’s eyes, but he could see the visor fogging slightly as the soldier’s chest rose and fell heavily.

            Ray scowled behind his owl mask, clawed gloves digging into the metal of his guns as they just stood there pointing their guns at each other. Before Ray could open his mouth, a shot rang out and the soldier’s head snapped to the side, his visor clattering to the floor and sliding away.

            Ray’s eyes widened as the soldier stumbled from the door, hand shooting up to hold the graze beginning to bleed on his cheek. He knew that face. He knew those cheek bones and crooked nose. He knew those lips and remembered a time when they smiled softly only at him. He remembered tracing every line and wrinkle late at night when they were both tired. He knew those crystal blue eyes, remembered spending hours memorizing the color just so they could haunt him in his dreams.

            “Holy fuck,” Ray breathed, more smoke billowing from his clothes and out from under his mask. The soldier’s head snapped up as he pointed the rifle in Ray’s direction again. “Holy _fuck_.”

            Ray dropped his guns and rushed forward. His own metal boots clanging against the floor as he reached up and ripped the mask from his face. The soldier’s brows furrowed, shoulders tensing and the gun pointing in a few different directions.

            “ _Ryan_ ,” Ray breathed as he let his mask fall to the ground and his body solidified just a little bit more so he looked like he used to all those years ago.

            “Wha-” the soldier started to say before Ray tackled him to the ground in a tight hug. They crumpled to the ground with the soldier’s gun pressed between them. “What the fuck?!”

            Ray laughed and sat up, staring down at Ryan, eyes flicking between clouded blue ones. His face was nearly the exactly the same except for the scar running from the right side of his forehead, across his nose and down to the left corner of his mouth. Another scar ran right across his eyes. “It’s me, Rye.”

            Ryan’s face was tense and no matter how Ray moved, his eyes never focused on him, always looking past him, over his head. “Who?” he said carefully as he tried to wiggle his gun free.

            Ray scowled, claws digging into the floor next to Ryan’s shoulders. “Is my face that horrible? I thought I made it look pretty damn good.” Ryan’s brow furrowed, eyes still in the distance. “Why aren’t you looking at me?”

            Ryan’s eyes suddenly widened and the gun stopped moving. Ray frowned as Ryan’s hands slipped from between them. “Ryan? What’s going on? Why can’t you see me?”

            Ryan slipped his fingers from his gloves, letting them splat on the floor as he reached up and cupped Ray’s cheeks. Ray froze as Ryan’s fingers were feather light over his cold and clammy skin. “Ryan?” he said, voice shakier than he wanted.

            Ryan’s face slowly relaxed as he smiled. “You haven’t aged a day,” he said softly, “God, Ray. I thought you were dead.”

            Ray felt himself shake. His gloves slipped to the ground as his hands turned into black smoke then solidified again. “Why can’t you see me?” he whispered, grabbing Ryan’s hands and ignoring how slick one of them was.

            Ryan snorted a laugh, wincing slightly. “I lost my sight the same time I lost you,” he said, pushing them upright. His gun slipped from between them, clattering to the ground. “God, Ray, how are you alive? Why are you working for Talon?”

            Ray opened and closed his mouth, letting his hand drop from Ryan’s. He held completely still as Ryan pushed his hood away to run one hand through his hair while the other traced his cheek bones and the arch of his nose.

            “I-they told me you were dead,” Ray said, raising trembling hands to Ryan’s face. He looked between his blank eyes, feeling sick.

            “I got out lucky,” Ryan said, voice cracking slightly, letting go of Ray’s head to hug him tightly, “I had to sit there and hold you as you died. What happened?”

            Ray hugged Ryan back just as tightly, wrapping his arms around his head and wishing he could do a million different things. “They-I. We can’t talk here,” he said, pulling away and standing quickly.

            Ryan held his arms in the air before letting them drop into his lap. “You’re right, I-can you find my visor?”

            Ray’s legs felt like noodles as he nodded numbly and stumbled over to the visor. He scooped the metal piece up and held it out to Ryan. He frowned when Ryan didn’t move, scowling at himself.

            He carefully placed the visor in Ryan’s hand before going for his own mask. He put his mask on, grabbing the medpack on his way back to Ryan. The visor was back on Ryan’s face and now he seemed to be looking at Ray now.

            “What’s with the mask?” Ryan laughed lightly, grabbing his gun, “And the hood? Are you emo now or something?”

            Ray frowned as he pulled his hood back up. “How are you seeing me?” he said, watching Ryan stand. He scooped up his gloves from the floor and yanked them back on.

            “Oh, the visor. Winston made it for me,” Ryan said, taking the medpack when Ray nearly shoved the cylinder into his chest.

            Ray grunted and pulled new pistols from his holsters, feeling their weight return to him after a moment. “We should get you back to Jack,” he said, glancing out of the room. He looked at the rooftops, searching for the sniper he knew was there.

            A burst of comforting yellow light filled the room behind him as he noticed a series of flashes on one of the taller roofs. Scowling, he turned away and frowned at Ryan. His clothes were still bloodied but he no longer looked like he was in pain. His forehead was no longer creased and his gun was steady in his hands.

            “We need to go,” Ray said, walking over to Ryan and warping his arms around his waist, the damned gun squished between them again.

            “Ray?” Ryan said tensing when Ray’s body began to dissipate into thick black smoke, “What the fu-“ he gasped then and smoke wrapped tightly around them. Ray forced them through walls and space toward the Overwatch base.

            Once they were in front of the base’s large steel doors, Ray dropped them to the ground, struggling to pull himself together. He had never used his Shadow Step with another person. Ryan scrambled to his feet, holding onto Ray’s arm the best he could while he was shifting through being solid and smoke in waves.

            “What happened to you?” Ryan breathed, dropping his gun and scooping Ray up into his arms just like he used to when they were training. Ray croaked a laugh, letting his head drop onto Ryan’s shoulder.

            He felt Ryan’s fingers slip under his mask as he held him easily with one arm. Closing his eyes as the mask lifted, he felt Ryan’s breathe stutter. He didn’t want to open his eyes and see the horror in Ryan’s through that damned red visor. He knew Ryan was tracing the smoke billowing from his eyes and mouth.

            He tried to reform his face somewhat, only able to make the smoke stop. His skin was scarred and pulled tighter. His irises were glowing red in empty black sockets. His hair and beard were only wisps of smoke and patches of actual hair.

            He felt Ryan stoop to grab his gun, grunting when the damned thing was dropped into his lap. “Still have a beard, huh?” Ryan said as he stood and started to walk.

            Ray snorted and cracked an eye open, afraid of Ryan not liking what he was about to see. “You’re looking a little white, old man.”

            Ryan laughed like Ray remembered although instead of smooth, and happy, the laugh sounded rough and nearly painful. “You will always call me that, won’t you?”

            “Probably,” Ray said, looking up at Ryan. He was beginning to hate that visor. He missed seeing Ryan’s smile he missed how the corner of his eyes would crinkle. He missed how he would wrinkle his nose or roll his eyes.

            Ryan glanced down at Ray and looked between his eyes. Ray felt him sigh before he looked forward again. Frowning, Ray wiggled in his arms and tried to push away. Chuckling, Ryan set Ray on the ground, taking his gun and passing Ray his mask.

            Ray looked down at the mask as his face slowly solidified and returned to what he looked like the last time he looked in a mirror. Scowling at the owl face, he trailed after Ryan.

            Ryan poked at the number pad next to the door for a moment before the steel doors shuttered and slid open. His gun hung at his side as he came to stand next to Ray again. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said softly, watching the doors open.

            Ray sighed and put his mask back on. “You Overwatch agents are too nice, I’ll be fine.”

            Ryan laughed as the doors clicked into place and a flash of light barreled right for them. Tracer spoke a mile a minute, hovering around the both of them with narrowed eyes. Jack came out next with a stern, tight frown.

            “76, explain,” Jack said, grip tight on the small pistol he always carried around.

            Ryan went over to Jack, leaving Ray to deal with Tracer’s scrutinizing stare. Sighing, he strained to hear as Ryan and Jack talked quietly.

            Jack eventually leaned back and sighed. “I’ll go talk to Winston, you keep an eye on him,” he said, nodding to Ray before looping his arm with Tracer’s and dragging her away. Ryan shook his head and waved for Ray to follow him.

            “We’ll go to my room until Winston makes a decision,” Ryan said walking into the base.

            “Great,” Ray grumbled, trailing after Ryan. He unhooked the belt holding his holsters. He passed them to Ryan as the door shuttered closed behind them. “So I’m screwed.”

            Ryan took the belt and slung the leather strap over his shoulder. “You know Winton doesn’t hold a grudge. Once he knows who you are he’ll be better,” he said as he entered a long building with only one floor.

            “I attacked him in his lab, Rye,” Ray mumbled, frowning at all of the numbered doors they passed.

            “Well, maybe when we know more about why, he’ll be more understanding,” Ryan said, stopping at a door numbered 76.

            Ray snorted and smiled under his mask as Ryan pressed his hand against the palm reader beside the door. “So, 76? Why not 69?” he said as the door slid open.

            “Because I’m not you,” Ryan snorted, shaking his head and shoulders trembling slightly with silent chuckles.

            “Oh come one, that would have been better than the year America won independence,” Ray said, following Ryan into the room.

            “I’m patriotic,” Ryan said, setting his gun on a desk right next to the door.

            “Like the good ol’ southern boy you are,” Ray laughed, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. He could remember when they used to share a room.

            He knew Ryan rolled his eyes from the way his head tilted with the movement. How could he not have known Soldier 76 was Ryan all along?

            Ray watched as Ryan closed the door and ignored the light switch. He pulled his visor off and tossed the light metal onto his bed. He grabbed the back of a desk chair before pausing. “Oh, the lights, you probably need them, don’t you?”

            Ray tensed and scowled. He pushed his hood back and removed his mask. “It's fine, I can see pretty well in the dark,” he said as he tossed the mask onto Ryan’s bed, listening to the soft tink of his mask landing on the visor.

            Ryan pursed his lips and slowly sat. He gently pushed his chair from side to side. He stared out into nothing wiggling in his chair like he was a small child.

            Ray smiled and pulled his gloves off. He hesitantly walked over and set the gloves down on the desk. Ryan ran his fingers over his desk until his hands bumped the gloves. He grabbed them and held them in his lap, Ray’s belt still slung over his shoulder.

            “So, what happened?” Ryan said as Ray edged back, “You were dead when they dragged me from that building.”

            Ray winced and sighed, running his hands through his hair. “I-I don’t really know how or when or why, but some Talon agents scraped my dead ass off of the ground and- experimented,” he said, lips twisting as his nose wrinkled, “They made me, this. I’m basically smoke that feeds off of the souls of the recent dead.”

            Ryan gave a shuttered breath, fingers tightly gripping the edge of his chair. Ray smiled slightly and looked at his hands. “They told me you were dead and Overwatch was disbanded after the explosion. I didn’t have anything I could go back to so I just did what they told me.”

            Ryan frowned and stood, dropping the belt and gloves back on his desk. He shuffled over and wrapped his arms tightly around Ray. I’m sorry,” he mumbled, pressing his nose into his shoulder, “I should have made them pull you out too.”

            Ray snorted and hugged Ryan back shaking his head. “You were alive, Rye. They didn’t give you a choice. They never gave any of us a choice,” he nearly snarled, fingers curling into Ryan’s jack.

            “Yeah, I know,” Ryan sighed, letting go of Ray and stepping back, “When they pulled me out, I could barely see. I lost my eyes not long after they told me you were dead. They wanted me to make a public announcement about how you and the others in Blackwatch were traitors.”

            “Well you clearly didn’t do that,” Ray said, folding his arms, “Did you actually listen to me?”

            “It’s all I had left,” Ryan shrugged, smiling softly, “They wouldn’t let me retire and they wouldn’t let me out of the building they were housing me in. They went so far as the get Winston to convince me. That’s when I got the visor.”

            Ray nodded slowly, holding his own arms tightly. “So what happened?”

            “I ran away,” Ryan shrugged with a sigh. He turned away and walked back over to the chair. “I tried going back home but my parents were gone and my brother owned the house. They babied me beyond belief.”

            Ray snorted then laughed, grinning when Ryan looked in his general direction, one eyebrow raised and a smile tugging at his lips. “I can’t see that flying for long.”

            “It didn’t,” Ryan snorted, shaking his head and sitting back down again, “I left before long and learned more about the Omnic Crisis and decided I had to do something. Then the recall went out.”

            “And you answered,” Ray said, frowning when Ryan sighed and nodded.

            “Now I’m team dad,” Ryan said, chuckling as he turned toward his desk, fingers ghosting over the wood until his nails tapped the edge of a frame, “There’s a lot of young kids this time.”

            Ray took the old-school picture Ryan held out to him. Ryan was in the center smiling without his visor. Trace was leaning on his shoulders while a young man with dark skin and green dyed dreads leaned against his side. A young Korean girl with long brown hair and pink paint on her cheeks was hugging him around the neck. Jack and Winston were in the background watching with fond smiles.

            “I keep a close eye on the kids,” Ryan said, not taking the picture back when Ray held the frame out to him, “They’re good, but I worry about them.”

            Ray winced when Ryan continued to ignore the picture, gently bumping his hand with the wooden frame. “Wasn’t Tracer in the original Overwatch?”

            “She was young then too,” Ryan said, smiling as he took the picture. He ran his fingers over the glass gently, still staring vacantly into the distance.

            Ray snorted and watched Ryan for a moment. He looked tired. Well, he had always looked tired, but now he looked extremely tired and sad. His smile was small and his fingers had the slightest of trembles.

            Ray’s arms dropped to his sides and he felt the vague beat of his heart burn. He stepped forward and gently ran his fingers through Ryan’s hair. Ryan tensed then relaxed, leaning to the side, letting Ray wrap his arms around his head.

            As he ran his fingers through Ryan’s hair, he counted the gray hears salting the sides of Ryan’s head. Ryan’s fingers stilled on the picture but his grip tightened on the frame.

            They both sighed when there was a knock on the door. Ray let go as Ryan stood, setting the picture on the desk. He shuffled over to the door and slapped the button to let the door slide open.

            Jack and Winston stood on the other side. Ray tensed when their eyes snapped towards him. “We’ve discussed the situation,” Jack said slowly, looking back at Ryan, “Since Reaper was once a member of Overwatch and is willingly changing sides, we will allow him to join as long as he is under watch from one of us at all times. Since we are technically also a criminal organization, there is not much else we can do.”

            Ryan smiled but Ray stayed tense as Winston stared him down. The gorilla had always been a lazy giant but he could really get going when he wanted. “Welcome back, Ray,” Winston said, smiling before turning away, “I’ll assume he’s staying here?”

            Ryan’s shoulders bunched up near his ears as Ray laughed. Jack shook his head, allowing himself to smile before walking away with Winston. Ryan shut the door, a blush smeared across his cheeks.

            “Uh, they’re joking, there are extra rooms,” Ryan said, turning in Ray’s direction.

            Ray laughed and shook his head. “Nah, I’m good here,” he said, smirking when the red went from Ryan’s cheeks to his ears, “Have any extra clothes I could borrow?”

            “They’d all be big on you,” Ryan sighed, walking over to a duffle bag resting on top of a dresser.

            “Perfect,” Ray said, smiling softly at Ryan.

            Ryan paused next to the duffle, hands hovering over the opening. The wide, happy smile Ray remembered came across his face before he started digging through the bag.


	20. Shedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan knew something was up when Ray started rubbing up against everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment! 
> 
> Want to read some more of my stuff? Head on over to: http://vidparson.tumblr.com/

           Ryan should have known something was up when Ray first started rubbing up against everything. Only a week into living in the same house and Ray started rubbing his ten feet of beautiful red scales against everything.

            The first time Ray did so, Ryan’s teeth started to ache and his skin crawled at the sound of the scales scraping against the threshold of the doorway into the kitchen. He frowned as Ray slithered through the small house, brushing up against walls and furniture.

            Instead of asking, like he probably should have, he just shrugged and tried to ignore the sound. Ray was probably marking the place with his scent or something, that was a thing nagas did, right?

            Well, then the scales seemed to fade in color, becoming a foggy white film surrounding his entire body. Ray would sit in the living room curled up on himself, scratching insistently at his snake half. His face would be contorted into aggravated pain.

            When he asked what was wrong, Ray froze, slowly turned toward him, and just stared. His pupils were barely visible slits. His body curled tighter as he opened his mouth, fangs hanging down.

            Before Ryan could ask again, Ray bolted from the room, moving much faster than Ryan had ever seen him. He locked himself in the bathroom, leaving Ryan standing in the dented and scratched up doorway to the kitchen.

            Ryan stared at where Ray had been sitting for a long moment before scowling. This probably had something to do with why Ray was so hesitant to move in with him. He had suggested moving in together after dating for over four years. That was the right time to ask that, all of Ray’s things were in Ryan’s home anyway.

            Ray had been hesitant, the tip of his tail tapping against the ground audibly. Ryan had tried to back pedal, tried to say that they didn’t have to if Ray really didn’t want to, but he suddenly had an armful of naga before he could even get the words out.

            Ray was wrapped tightly around him, pressing his lips to his before pulling back with a soft smile. “Of course I’ll move in with you,” he had said.

            Now Ryan wondered if that was the right choice. Ray was acting strange and kept making strange gurgles as he scratched at his scales. A small voice in Ryan’s head pointed out that maybe there was something in his house that could be an irritant. Another voice pointed out that if that was true, Ray would have reacted sooner, but that didn’t stop Ryan from grabbing his computer and Googling for answers.

            Nagas, apparently, were capable of being allergic to just about everything. Since Ray could go outside without wheezing on air Ryan just assumed there was something specific. His house was old, built just at the edge of a small human community close enough to the creature side that Ray and Ryan could comfortably live there without too many odd stares.

            Through some careful research, Ryan found out that the most common allergen among nagas was cedar. The house, thankfully, wasn’t made from cedar, but a few pieces of furniture from his parents were, specifically his father’s old desk which Ryan kept in his office and a side table his mother insisted he take but he didn’t want.

            Getting rid of the side table had been easy. He happily sold the piece off to Lindsey who had mentioned liking the design when she, Michael, and Gavin were at the house for a game night. The desk was harder.

            His father worked at that desk for Ryan’s entire life. He was surprised to be gifted the desk when he got the job at Rooster Teeth. His father, with a regretful smile, told him that he needed the old desk more than he did now.

            Ryan frowned down at the desk, papers and boxes of the random objects he had forgotten he had stuffed into deep drawers surrounding his feet. He wasn’t fond of the desk, but the only memories he had with his father involved the damn thing.

            Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair. They weren’t particularly good memories, not compared to the ones he was making with Ray. Running his fingers over the top of the desk, he sighed one more time before moving to turn the desk around to get the scraped and dusty desk through the door.

            “Ryan?” Ray said, peeking into the room. The bags under his eyes were heavier than usual, forked tongue occasionally slipping past his lips. “What are you doing?”

            “Just, I need a new desk,” Ryan said slowly, standing up right, “Sides, this old thing is-I don’t need it anymore.”

            Ray frowned and slithered into the room, wrapping his arms around Ryan’s waist. “I thought this was your dad’s?” he said, nuzzling his nose into the underside of Ryan’s jaw.

            “It was,” Ryan said slowly, hooking his arm around Ray’s waist, frowning down at the top of the desk, “But it's old and-well. It’s cedar and aren’t you allergic to that?”

            Ray leaned back, brow furrowed and blinking slowly. His tongue slipped free again before he spoke. “What? No. I’ve never been. My mom is deathly allergic though,” he said, smiling at Ryan, “If that’s why you’re getting rid of it, don’t worry about it.”

            Ryan took a deep breath, before puffing out a laugh. “I guess your folks can’t visit then.”

            “Thank god,” Ray snorted, snuggling back into the crook of Ryan’s neck.

            Ryan puffed another laugh, holding Ray tightly and pressing his cheek into his hair. He stared at the desk for a long moment before looking down at Ray’s tail. The film was still there in blotchy patches.

            Once his desk was put back together again, with Ray’s help, Ryan sat down and sunk into his desk chair. Ray was looking through one of his old notebooks from college he had decided to keep and not throw away for whatever reason.

            Ryan watched Ray snicker at a particularly bad drawing with a fond smile. His stomach dropped although his smile stayed plastered to his face as Ray reached down and scratched at a patch of white film.

            He desperately wanted to ask, but he didn’t want Ray to run off again. He wanted him to be comfortable. Sighing, his brow furrowed when Ray yawned and he set the notebook on his desk. “You okay, Rose?” he said, unable to not smile when Ray blushed and grinned brightly at him.

            “I’m fine, just tired,” Ray said, slithering over and nudging Ryan’s chair.

            Ryan turned and held his arms out to Ray, laughing when he eagerly fell into his lap, tail wrapping around them both. “Aren’t you sleeping at night?” he said as he wrapped his arms tightly around Ray.

            “Not really,” Ray sighed, nuzzling into the crook of his neck, “I’ve always had a hard time sleeping through.”

            Ryan nodded and ran his fingers through Ray’s hair. Before long, Ray was fast asleep, soaking in Ryan’s warmth. Carefully, trying his hardest to not disturb his sleep, Ryan turned to his computer and started another Google search.

            Like snakes, nagas needed something warm to sleep on to keep their body temperature normal. Unlike snakes, they needed something soft and smooth to sleep on so that their scales weren’t pulled.

            A little more research later, Ryan found a relatively cheap queen size snake bed. A little more digging later and he found sheets that wouldn’t catch on his scales. When everything came in, Ray trailed after him with a confused look.

            “What’s wrong with your old bed?” he said as he helped Ryan lift the old mattress off of the wooden bedframe.

            “It’s uh. I figured it wouldn’t be comfortable for you,” Ryan pushed out, shifting sideways to set the old mattress on the floor in front of the frame, “It’s made for humans and not soft enough?”

            Ray blinked at Ryan slowly over the mattress. “There are beds specifically for humans?” he said slowly, brow furrowing and his tongue slipping free from his lips.

            Ryan blinked back at Ray before smiling slowly. “There are beds and sheets specifically for nagas too. I thought you would know this.”

            “What? No!” Ray gasped, slithering over and peaking at the mattress in the hallway. He looked back at Ryan with wide, excited eyes.

            Ryan laughed and they pulled the mattress into the room. Once the plastic was gone and the sheets were carefully laid out on the bed, Ray hesitantly pressed his hands into the bed. Smiling slowly, he carefully pulled himself onto the bed and curled up.

            “Holy shit,” Ray breathed as he spread out on the mattress, sinking into the mattress, “Holy _fuck_.”

            Ryan laughed and sat on the edge of the bed. He laid down in what little space was left between Ray and his tail. He had been afraid that the bed would be too soft for him, but he was just as comfortable as Ray seemed to be. Although, the covers seemed too slippery and he could already feel the heat from the bodies sinking into the foam mattress and making his back sweat.

            Ray pushed some of his tail off the edge of the bed like he did most nights they slept together. He pulled at Ryan until he shifted closer to the middle of the bed and curled up on his chest.

            Ryan wrapped his arm around Ray’s shoulders and felt the humidity increase slowly in the room. The bed was doing exactly what Ryan expected but he had forgotten that he didn’t need the warmth like Ray did.

            Ray slept beautifully on the bed while Ryan had to have a fan on him all night. Once he adjusted to the constant heat and cuddlier naga wrapping more and more around him in the night he found himself sleeping just as well.

            The bed didn’t stop the strange splotchy parts of Ray’s scales, they only seemed to get worse. So once again, Ryan found himself in front of his computer. Ray had been flicking his tongue more often and only when he was at home. He knew Ray hated flicking his tongue so there had to be a reason.

            Apparently, nagas had a more acute sense of smell and because of instincts he had no idea he was even flicking his tongue. He was either smelling something with a strong scent to him or prey.

            So Ryan replaced anything that could have a scent to him but Ray continued to flick his tongue. The next option was that there were rats or something in the house. Ryan was hesitant to believe that until the human exterminator came and low and behold, under the house were multiple nests of rats.

            Even with all of the rats gone, Ray continued to flick his tongue. Ryan watched him as they ate dinner. Ray was talking about the game he tested that day, complaining about how the developers were treating him.

            “Just because they’re leviathans does not mean they’re better than me,” Ray hissed, pupils dilating and his fangs sinking into sandwich. As he ate, he grumbled to himself, tongue flicking from his mouth.

            Ryan frowned and shifted uncomfortably. He wished he could do something for Ray, but a leviathan was more likely to eat him than any other creature. “I’m sure you showed them up with your game knowledge,” he said, smiling when Ray sat up straighter with a smirk, bits of lettuce clinging to his fangs.

            “Damn right I did,” Ray said with a nod, tongue flicking free.

            Ryan smiled as Ray returned to his meal. When they finished and were sitting on the couch, Ray watched TV while Ryan watched Ray. Every fifteen minutes or so, Ray’s tongue would flick free. Pursing his lips, he awkwardly cleared his throat.

            Ray’s head snapped to look at him, smile lazy. “Can, can I ask you a question?” Ryan said slowly, frowning when Ray tensed.

            “Uh, sure,” Ray said, shifting slightly, picking at one of the blotchy spots on his tail, “Shoot.”

            “Why do you flick your tongue so much, you don’t do that at work,” Ryan said, brows furrowing when Ray visible relaxed, sinking into the couch,

            “Oh, well. I’m just comfortable here,” Ray said, rubbing at the scales, “I know you don’t mind when I do weird shit.”

            Ryan’s shoulders slumped and he smiled tiredly. “Okay, good. I’m glad,” he said, holding his arms out to Ray.

            Ray smiled and made a soft trilling sound Ryan had no idea lizards could make before curling up against him. Ray’s tan skin was chill against his own and something occurred to Ryan.

            “Rye, I didn’t need a lamp, you know,” Ray said, laughing lightly. He was watching Ryan over the couch they were cuddling on just the night before as he set up a giant heat lamp over a pile of naga certified blankets. “You keep the house warm enough.”

            “Well, yeah, but you need extra heat on occasion, don’t you?” Ryan said as he plugged the lamp in.

            “Yeah, but I can just go outside for that,” Ray said, slithering over as Ryan turned the light on and blinked against the bright white light.

            “Not in the winter you can’t,” Ryan said with a bright smile.

            Ray snorted and laughed before nuzzling Ryan’s cheek. “Thank you,” he sighed, wrapping his arms around Ryan’s waist and pressing a soft kiss against his jaw, “you don’t need to make the house more comfortable for me.”          

            “But I want to,” Ryan said pulling Ray closer, “It’s your home too.”

            Ray trilled and kissed him, slipping his arms from Ryan’s waist to thread his fingers through his hair. Ryan happy kissed back, holding Ray tighter. They ended up cuddling under the lamp, Ray insisting that Ryan get more fans to cool himself off at least.

            Despite everything, Ray’s scales continued to get a foggy film until his entire body was covered. Ryan spent hours trying to figure out what else he was doing wrong. Short of just asking Ray and risking him hiding away again, Ryan had no way of knowing what was wrong.

            Ryan was staring hard at his computer, trying to focus on code for his game, when Ray walked by arms full of the towels he had to have for his scales. Ryan had never seen him use them much less hold them since they started living together.

            Ryan watched Ray over his computer, frowning as Ray struggled to carry the large bundle into the bathroom. Standing slowly, he creeped toward the door, artfully avoiding all of the creaking floor boards.

            He crept down the hall and peeked into the bathroom as Ray stood over the tub. The water was running and soaking the towels which were piled up in the tub. Once all of the towels were soaked, Ray turned the water off and squeezed the water from the towels.

            Ryan raised his eyebrows as he leaned against the doorway when the towels stuck to the walls when Ray slapped them onto the tile. Ray covered every inch of tub and tile with the towels before lifting himself into the tub.

            “What are you doing?” Ryan said, making Ray freeze with his tail in hand. He looked up at Ryan with wide eyes. “Please don’t shut me out.”

            Ray swallowed hard, dropping his tail and shifting nervously. “I- uh, I’m shedding?” he croaked, cringing through a smile.

            Ryan stared at Ray for a long moment before dropping his head into his hands with a low groan. “Obviously, god fucking damnit.”

            Ray frowned and pulled another portion of his tail into the tub. “Ryan?”

            Ryan laughed lightly and shook his head. “I’m sorry Ray, I’ve been doing all this research since you didn’t answer me the last time I asked. I thought there was something wrong with the house.”

            Ray blinked, snorted, and then laughed. “Is that why you got all of that stuff?” he said, laughing more when Ryan nodded, “Well, I’m glad you did. We didn’t need all of those rats.”

            “I’m glad I did it as well, but still, I was worried,” Ryan said, stepping into the bathroom, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

            Ray picked up the end of his tail and played with the tip. “I-you keep telling me how beautiful my scales are and it’s embarrassing for them to look like this, much less basically rip them off. And it’s actually really gross.”

            Ryan snorted and walked over to Ray, pulling him close. “Ray, out of everything, this would not be the thing that would push me away. You can’t help what your body does naturally. I will never judge you.”

            Ray blushed up at Ryan before wrapping his arms around his shoulders and kissing him. “Thank you,” he sighed against his lips when they parted.

            Ryan smiled and let Ray go. “So, how do you shed your skin?”

            “You don’t have to watch,” Ray said, frowning as his arms fell to his sides and his tail began rubbing against the towels.

            “I don’t mind,” Ryan said, studying the towel closest to him. The fibers were stiff and bent like a hook. He ran his fingers over the damp towel that felt like the rough side of Velcro.

            “It’s really gross,” Ray said, moving throughout the bathtub.

            Ryan shrugged, not even cringing when the skin caught on the towel and ripped. The crinkle of the skin put a faint memory on the tip of Ryan’s tongue. “Huh,” he said, smiling at Ray when he frowned at him, “It sounds like when you have a sunburn and peel the skin.”

            “Oh, yeah, it does,” Ray said, curling and pulling more of the skin off, “Oh thank fuck,” he sighed.

            “What?” Ryan said, smiling at the bliss on Ray’s face as more and more of the skin peeled away.

            “This shit is itchy man,” Ray said, pushing some skin out of the way.

            “I was wondering about that,” Ryan said, reaching in and yanking the piece of skin refusing to let go of the tip of Ray’s tail. He pulled the skin from the tub and ran his fingers over the ruff, red tinted skin.

            “Don’t go anywhere with that,” Ray said, snatching the skin from Ryan’s hands, “I need to eat this.”

            Ryan’s nose wrinkled as his brow furrowed. “What? Why?” he said, trying not to make too much of a face when Ray balled up the skin and popped the ball into his mouth.

            “Its nutrients and shit I need to live. You know those pills I take with meals?” Ray said, chewing on the skin as Ryan nodded, “This will replace those until it’s all gone.”

            Ryan opened his mouth then quickly closed it again. “Alright,” he said helping Ray out of the tub. He grabbed one of the towels without skin in the hooks and helped Ray peel the rest of the skin.

            Ray kept the skin in a big bag and the towels in a large trash bag. Ryan kept his face straight every time Ray pulled the bag out to eat some of the skin. He was never happier when the bag was empty.

            “At least I only shed once a year?” Ray said once he ate the last piece of skin.

            Ryan smiled at Ray and leaned over the table to peck him on the lips. “I’m just glad you’re comfortable here.”

            Ray blushed and smiled at Ryan, cupping his cheeks and kissing him again.


	21. Weight of Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He could live forever if he wanted. All he had to do was kill one person decade after decade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
> 
> Like my work? Please check out my original work at: http://vidparson.tumblr.com/

           Shrouded in the darkness, his fingers curled around the dagger hiding under his white and red robes. The empty cobble street echoed with every breath and step of the whore house flooding the street with glowing candle light.

He could see other eyes glowing in different dark corners, waiting. They all wanted paid for the job, but only one of them would be paid the most. He curled his toes in the soft soil under his feet, he had taken off his sandals not too long ago, bare feet always quieter than leather.

The rickety wooden door of the house creaked open and all of them tensed, hoping their glittering eyes wouldn’t give them away. A young man, someone the senate couldn’t have getting the people behind him, stepped out of the building with a level head and smiling. The headmistress wiped tears from her puffy eyes as she thanked the young man over and over.

Ryan sighed, shaking his head. This young man could be the difference between chaos and years of actual peace. A job was a job, none of that mattered as long as he was the one to get paid.

The young man turned away from the mistress as she slipped back into the building. Their eyes briefly met as the man turned, dark brown eyes causing Ryan’s breath to catch in his throat. His mind went blank and his fingers went slack around the hilt of the dagger.

His heart raced in his ears as one of the other assassins stepped from the shadows. The man tried to scream, but the second assassin stepped out behind him and covered his mouth with his hand. Ryan stayed stiff in the shadows, fingers curling tight around his dagger. His heartbeat calmed and his mind cleared. He felt nothing as his soul mate crashed to the ground in a pool of his own blood.

He leaned against the wall as the assassins raced from the scene, leaving their bloodied weapons and clothes as they went. Ryan watched the light leave brown eyes and sighed. What was going to happen now?

He edged out of the shadows and wandered out of the city. He remembered his mother telling him the story of Venus. How she watched over a couple, watching them fall in love and fight to be beside each other no matter what stood in their way. She watched them grow old and die together and discovered not every human was so lucky to find their other head and set of arms.

On a whim, she granted humanity a gift. They would age for twenty years and then they would live until the human that fit perfectly with them came. They, like the couple, would fall in love and age together until death. She gave humans the ability to sense their soul mate the instant they met eyes.

Since then, humans searched for the ones they deserved and belonged with. Sometimes that was multiple people, others that was only one. Ryan hadn’t thought much about his soulmate or possible soulmates. He was born and raised to be a killer, who could possibly be perfect for him?

Now, that didn’t matter. Only he met eyes with his soulmate before he died. He hadn’t heard of such a thing happen before, but surely, it must have? There were so many people in the world. Would he eventually begin to age? Would his soulmate just become someone else?

No, he would not age. He outlived the empire he had no cares for. He traveled the globe and wondered if those in Asia were correct and eventually everyone was reborn.

Without anything else to do with himself and every inch of the known globe stepped upon, he became an assassin again. He was a famous one within only a few decades. Every language had a name for him, mostly dealing with death. He would wear the masks the dead wore as they were being buried when he killed.

Fifty years after the empire fell, he was still young and roaming from city to city, killing for whoever was willing to pay him more. This time, instead of on a job, he was simply wandering the streets when he met eyes with eerily familiar brown ones. A young woman this time, his soulmate slowly smiled brightly at him and he could almost feel himself age a year.

He felt nothing as he slipped a blade between her ribs artfully, without anyone in the crowd knowing. There was nothing in his heart. He felt the heartbeat and the longing as he had the first time, but this time he drew the blade himself.

Everything was empty. He felt no attachments, nothing but a feeling that would change everything. There was so much to the world, so much accomplished within the few years he had continued to live. He was so focused on the future, what was to come? He wouldn’t see if he grew old with someone and died.

Thirty years later and he was nearly triple the age people tended to live. He could get sick and wounded. He had tasted death only a handful of times, but he always recovered. There was someone the world wanted him to meet. He wasn’t even sure if the story he was told as a child was every true anymore. Did gods and goddesses even exist? He wasn’t sure anymore, there were so many different ones.

Instead, he focused on his killing and on the advancements in the world. New wars, new people, new technologies. He compared every decade to the last, writing as much as he could about how things had changed.

He met his soulmate again, brown eyes still so familiar even if the body had changed. A man once again, he saw him before he saw him. He was disposed of in the woods surrounding the tiny village he had stopped in before getting to the Imperial lands.

He watched the blood pump from those glass eyes. He wept this time, almost feeling his true age. He buried his soulmate that would never be able to live their life to the fullest. They could never have a happy ending. He thought the entire thing foolish anyway, even through his tears. How could he love someone he didn’t even know? How did the universe know what was right for him? He didn’t feel love for his soulmates, just sadness at the loss of their life like all soulmates who lament the end of their other half’s life.

He ripped bark from nearby trees until he had a piece big enough to write on. He had learned multiple types of poetry over his years and he carved a poem that flowed through each type in the first language he learned.

He left with red eyes and sniffling. He completed his task and then returned to the grave. He buried the mask just under the surface before disappearing into time. He didn’t kill for forty years until the next incarnation came around.

Another woman, another back alley death. He buried her with a new mask and took up the blade again. Every soulmate dead added years to his life. He looked thirty by the time America was founded.

This time, he waited for his soulmate, determined to love them this time. He was ready to age, ready to leave the world. He wanted to feel his age for a change. He had seen the world grow so much since the day he was born, but he had enough, seen enough, knew enough. He was ready.

So when he found brown eyes in the midst of battle, he with the rebels, they with the farmers that claimed themselves an army, his gun trembled in his hands and his heart pounded right out of his chest.

His soulmate’s eyes glittered as they pinked, the barrel of their gun trembled. They were covered in heavy layers and took labored breaths. Neither lowered their guns as the war waged around them, screams of dead men roared in their ears as the whinny of scared and dying horses raised over the clamor.

Round bullets shot dirt into the sky as sharp blades on the end of long rifles slammed into bodies. Men tore each other to pieces and he never wanted to have anything to do with war ever again after this.

They weren’t outside of the battle. Bullets and men brushed past them, occasionally knocking them over. His commander, upon his white horse and with his thin sword, rode right at them and he watched the blade slip into his neck.

Like the first time, he let his soulmate die without doing a thing. As his commander yanked his sword free, he rode off as the body dropped to the ground. Ryan dropped his gun and sunk to his knees and cradled the limp, thin body to his chest. A crumpled, stained paper slipped from his soulmates fingers and he hesitantly opened the paper.

The messy handwriting was addressed to a woman named Margret. His soulmate told her how much they wished she was their soulmate and how excited they was to return home. Home, to their toddler.

Sobbing, Ryan pressed his nose into his soulmates short black hair. He carried their dead weight from the battle, through towns and farms to the farmhouse the letter was addressed to. He didn’t change either of their clothes. He wanted to feel the hatred his red uniform created.

At the doorstep of a large, plain farmhouse miles from the fighting, Ryan kicked the door with his dusty black boots. The smell of death clung to him as the door opened and a woman with a small boy hiding behind her skirts answered the door.

He stared at their feet as she gasped and tried to back away. He thrust the letter out and listened to the creak of the paper as she straightened the paper out. He closed his eyes as she sobbed and collapsed to her knees. The boy asked his mother what was wrong, who was this man? Why was she crying?

Swallowing hard he hefted the weight of centuries. “I carried him here,” he croaked as the woman looked up at him, hand over her mouth as tears slipped down her cheeks, “To be buried.”

Margret nodded numbly, hesitantly getting to her wobbling legs. The boy didn’t understand as she led him to the back of the house and got him a shovel. He dug the hole next to a different grave.

They buried him without a casket and in his military uniform. The boy didn’t understand, didn’t even know this man they were burying. He spoke the eulogy, the same poem he always wrote. Yet, this time, he didn’t have a mask to place with the dead.

Margret let him stay at their house. Let him wear her dead loves clothes and let him eat their food and tend to their farm. When she asked for his name, he gave him a sad smile. “Ryan,” he said softly, remembering a messy signature at the bottom of the letter that never left Margret’s pockets.

She covered her mouth with her hands and gave him a shaky smile. With a nod, she was gone and Ryan looked at his hands. He had many names throughout the centuries, but this one he would keep.

He married Margret but they could never care for each other like they should. He married her to make up a promise he never made. The boy, James, admired him as his father, even when his mother found her true soulmate.

He let her be with her one and only with soft smile. He helped raised the boy, was still his father. He watched him grow old and kept tabs on his children as he grew old and died. Even now, looking thirty five and living in a different city, different world, he kept tabs on his decedents.

Now, he was back to old ways. He wore a black skull mask and was called many familiar names. He smiled when a book was released by a historian how his current murders were awfully familiar to accounts from the past.

They thought there was a cult for some war god or another. They thought that they were an ancient group following the teachings of his first life, the one from Rome. Nothing could be funnier to him. There was just him, killing like he always had. Although, the cult following made him a bit more terrifying.

So, if the police traced their evidence back to the basement of an abandoned building where a shrine to an imaginary god rested, no one was the wiser. He simply waited for the next TV special or book to study his nonexistent cult. And if those writers and producers discovered that the cult used historical symbols, well, everyone was happy.

His favorite was a TV program he had recorded and kept on a disk among the piles of objects he kept throughout time. Beside the blade that killed Ryan and a locket of himself with Margret and James. Among the delicate pieces of paper dictating his long life, was a disk of the show Ancient Aliens where they claimed he was a vicious alien teaching ancient humans the art of murder.

Sometimes, when he was tired and felt empty inside, he would slip the disk in and watch. He would laugh every time a man with crazy hair that almost looked like a wig came on the screen. Other times, he would reread his own history, so many parts blurred in his memory.

Sometimes he would pick up pieces from the people he met, some of them were only shards of what once was. He didn’t touch the sword or the locket. He made that mistake once and regretted doing so in a carpeted room. Dried blood was hard to get out of carpet.

He kept everything in the farmhouse. After James died and his children had no use of the property, Ryan bought all of the land. Of course, over time, he had lost most of the property except for the house and the graveyard, he was happy with just that, he didn’t have the patients to till the land anymore.

Margret and her wife’s graves sat next to Ryan’s and Margret’s father's. Only a headstone for James and the children Ryan interacted with were beside that. Their bodies were elsewhere; Ryan couldn’t remember where.

He had maintained the house for years, keeping every the same. He added new things like electricity and internet when they came about. The house was his safe place, where he hid during the World Wars and where he refused to leave when farmers and the government wanted the land.

They left him alone after the lawyers and bastards ended up dead after painful torture. He had taken so much away from himself over the years, they were not about to take away the one place where he was almost happy, almost had a family.

He still killed, of course. Being an assassin paid every bill, every time. After so long, he was a master of the art, keeping the police off of his tail and onto false leads they created for themselves. Regardless, he always returned to the same old farmhouse filled with what could have been.

This time, he promised himself, he would do something. He wouldn’t be the one doing the killing and he wouldn’t let them be killed. He would bring them here, where their memories lied, where their future would be.

They could reclaim some land and maybe taken in some stray animals that desperately need the home. They could have children, of their own blood or adopted, to raise together and watch grow up.

He would love them this time, unlike all of the others where he felt nothing for their faces. He would love them for the centuries they missed together. He discovered, with the new age of the world, there were words for what he was, other than psychopath.

He was demiromantic. Demisexual. He could love but through a bond. He never had a real bond with his soulmates before. He had only seen them and then they were dead by his hand or another’s. This time, he would let them speak, hear their words and fall in love. He was sure this time.

Yet, so long had passed since Ryan and he hadn’t found them again. Before, they would appear every thirty to fifty years. Now two hundred and thirty three years had passed and he hadn’t heard from them at all. Either the world had given up on him and gave his soulmate to someone more deserving or his hermit habits were actually becoming a problem.

He couldn’t help himself, the world had become too tiresome in his old age and the best invention in the world, video games, were too distracting. He could spend days playing a game and exploring different worlds made real with ones and zeros.

X-Box live was a strange place, but he adjusted quickly like he had with most changed that happened in the world. He got used to new voices filtering over his headphones as he played games and battled against other living people. Another reason not to leave the house unless he was hired to kill someone. He could do everything, including eat thanks to his garden, from his house. What a time. Too bad politics were a mess, more than even the Roman empire.

He made many friends, more than he ever had throughout history, over games. Sometimes he would record their digital voices to add to his collection of things from time. One young man he met he become attached to.

Ray was a snarky, sassy, sarcastic bastard who was too good at games for his own good. He played games for a living, from what he told Ryan, and always laughed at Ryan’s dark humor. He listened to him prattle on about new technology and complain about the world at large, offering his own input that always seemed to make Ryan look at the world in a different light.

He would groan at every one of Ray’s use of memes and shitty puns. He rolled his eyes every time Ray talked about blazing it because Ray was more likely to drink alcohol than actually do drugs.

Ryan always questioned Ray’s profession despite secretly being subscribed to his channel where he watched Ray’s old live streams. He knew a little too much about murder for the average person and spoke like he was just as old as Ryan felt at times. He talked about the creation of video games like he was there and Ryan wondered if maybe he was.

He couldn’t be the only one who was centuries old. Maybe Ray was like him, it made falling in love with Ray just a bit easier. They had never met in person and Ryan knew what he looked like from snapchats from Ray’s daily life and videos. He knew his voice from every time they played games together or called.

He didn’t realize he was in love until one of Ray’s friends that often played with them consistently told them to stop flirting. Michael would grumble and call them lovebirds and that was when Ryan realized he was actually in love.

He had never been in love with a person before. He had never loved Margret, just loved the idea of being with her. He loved James and his decedents as a father figure. He had never been in love, never given himself the chance.

So when Ray suggested they actually meet, in Los Santos of all places, he immediately agreed without thinking. He hoped beyond hope that the world hadn’t given up on him yet. Even if Ray wasn’t his one, he could try anyway. Maybe, just maybe, he could be happy.

About an hour after getting off of his call with Ray about the trip, he received a call from an unknown number on his murder phone. The black flip phone had spots of dried blood crusted on the buttons as he snapped the phone open and answered with a deeper voice.

“Mind coming outside, Vagabond?” a lazy voice said.

Ryan tensed and glanced at the windows of his house. The blinds were drawn like they always were. Narrowing his eyes, he grabbed his mask from where the rubber skull was resting on top of his typical murder outfit, a leather jacket and ripped and ratty jeans.

He pulled the mask on and grabbed up a few weapons. He hung up his phone and strapped his weapons under his clothes. He slipped the mask on and stepped out the back door. With a glance at the graves, he toed his shoes off and hopped the short white fence separating his property from the farms surrounding him.

He along the wall and peaked around the corner. A man with a curly mustache and messy brown hair stood leaning against a supped up chrome sports car that was covered in dust. The hubcaps were bright green and there was a purple under glow. The man had a T-shirt designed to look like a suit. Sleeves of tattoos started at his knuckles and disappeared under his sleeves.

His jeans were baggy, hands tapping his thigh inside his pocket. His tennis shoes were worn down on the bottom, dirty and rugged. There was no one else in the car and the man’s face seemed familiar.

Frowning, Ryan edged out from the house, pulling a gun from the holster hidden under his shirt. He edged around the man’s car, making sure that the man was focused on his front door. Once he was on the other side of the car, he raised his gun, aiming right at the man’s head.

“What do you want?” Ryan said, smiling when the man jumped and turned around, pulling at a gun of his own.

“What the-how the fuck did you get there?” the man said, looking between Ryan and the house.

“What do you want?” Ryan said again, looking between the man’s brown eyes. They weren’t the same dark, almost black beautiful jewels he had haunted by for centuries.

The man blinked then gave Ryan a lazy smile, holstering his gun again. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Vagabond,” he said as he leaned against his car again, folding his arms on top, “You’re good.”

Ryan shrugged slightly, not taking his eyes off the man. “What of it?”

“Well, I want you to join my crew,” the man said, tapping the tip of his shoe against the ground, “Someone of your talents would be a great addition.”

Ryan narrowed his eyes at the man then his face and named clicked together. “I’m not one for groups, Ramsey,” he said, gun still not wavering.

“Says the guy a part of a cult,” Geoff snorted, shaking his head, “Come on, our heists can double your profits.”

“Not interested in money,” Ryan said with a small shake of his head. He had plenty from over the years.

“How about the homely feeling of being in Los Santos, every criminal makes their life there,” Geoff said before jerking his thumb behind him at the house, “Not here in the middle of buttfuck nowhere.”

Ryan scowled and shoved his gun back into his holster. The same old assassinations were getting boring and he had heard about Ramsey and his motley crew. They were good, very good. They might be fun to mess around with, for a while.

“I’m going to be in Los Santos for a few days,” Ryan said, looking Geoff over as he stood up a bit taller with a bright smile, “I will go on one heist with your crew. If I like it, I’ll consider hanging around.”

“One is all we’ll need to convince you!” Geoff said, smiling at Ryan and offer his hand over the top of the car.

Ryan looked between Geoff’s face and hand before sighing and shaking his hand. He watched the shiny car kick up the dirt as Geoff drove away. Sighing again, he went back to his house and started to pack for his stay in Los Santos.

He drove to Los Santos in the shitty pickup truck he had bought ages ago and continued to fix up every time something broke. He didn’t trust planes within an inch of his very long life.

He followed the instructions Ray gave him to get to his apartment. He grimaced when he hit heavy traffic just outside the city limit. Sinking in his seat and sighing, he white knuckle drove all the way over to the apartments parking lot where he placed a parking pass Ray had sent him with the instructions on his dash,

On shaking legs, he slipped out of his car and wandered over to the apartment. Driving was so much nicer when there were less people on the road.

He eyed the rickety old elevator before taking the stairs to Ray’s floor. His duffle swung over his shoulder, his chest felt tight as he walked toward the apartment. He could barely contain a smile as he knocked on the right door. He was so close to happiness of some sort.

He stood there for ten minutes without anyone answering his knocks before he started to shift nervously. Setting his duffle down, he pulled out his not murder phone and quickly dialed Ray’s number.

The phone rang almost too many times before Ray picked up. “Ryan? Man? Are you already at my place?”

“Uh yeah, Ray, you okay?” Ryan said, frowning slightly as Ray hissed over the line.

“I’m fine! Fine. Just, had to run for a bit,” Ray said, static echoing over the line for a moment.

“But you hate running,” Ryan said carefully, slowly patting to make sure all of his hidden weapons were in their right spots.

“Uh, okay. I might be in a bit of trouble,” Ray said and Ryan felt himself go ridged. No, not when he was so close.

“What kind of trouble?” Ryan said, bending down to grab his duffle bag.

“The, I missed the bus and now have to run home kind,” Ray laughed lightly and Ryan felt himself deflate, “Geeze, you sounded like you were about to murder a bitch.”

Ryan laughed awkwardly, setting the duffle back down. “I just know how dangerous the city can be,” he said, leaning back against Ray’s door.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m fine,” Ray said, silence consuming the phone when a gunshot rang out in the background.

Ryan was already running for his truck as Ray tried, rather impressively, to pretend nothing was wrong. “Where are you?” Ryan growled out, tossing his duffle into the back of his truck and yanking the door open.

“Ryan, seriously, I’m fine,” Ray said, another shot ringing out along with shouting, “People are always shooting guns around here.”

“Where. Are. You.” Ryan said, starting up his car.

Ray sighed over the line and mumbled out a street name. Ryan drove carefully, but faster than anyone else. Cars were easier to direct than horses.

The line had gone dead when Ray mumbled out the streets, but Ryan clung to the feeling of Ray being alive, hoping his gut wouldn’t fail him now.

When he got to the right streets, he jumped from his car and pulled out his pistol. He followed the echoes of shouting and gunshots to an all-out war. People with bandanas over their mouths were shooting at each other. Flashes of was through the ages burned in his mind as he wobbled slightly.

Forcing himself to take a deep breath, he took cover and edged through the fighting. He convinced himself the red was paint and the shouting was a video game. Anything for him to get through this. He heard about gang wars, but hadn’t wanted to see any.

“Ryan?!”     

He didn’t respond for a long time. That wasn’t his name.

“Ryan! What the fuck are you doing here? With a gun?”

A hand yanked at his shoulder and he stared through a familiar face with a more familiar voice. Curly red hair hung in front of a pale face.

“Michael?” Ryan croaked, furrowing his brows and focusing on Michael’s face.

“Yeah, dumbass. What the fuck are you doing here?” Michael spat, gripping Ryan’s shoulder tighter.

“Uh, Ray-“ Ryan said, mind snapping into complete focus, “Where’s Ray?”

Michael scowled and pushed Ryan toward an alleyway. “Ray’s fucking fine, he fucked off not too long after he got a call from you and this stupid shootout started.”

“Why aren’t they shooting at you?” Ryan said as he let Michael guide him through the fighting. He tried to think of this as a follow mission from Call of Duty, anything to stay focused.

“They know better than to fuck with me,” Michael smirked at Ryan before taking off down an alleyway, the bullets stopping just for him to run.

Ryan raced after him while he had the chance, holstering his gun. “Where’s Ray?” he pressed, turning toward where his truck was still parked

“He ran home to meet you,” Michael said, eyeing Ryan’s truck, “Didn’t think you were packing heat and would show up.”

Ryan frowned and slipped into his truck, Michael climbing into the passenger seat. Something bright green caught the corner of Ryan’s eye and he turned to stare at the Fake AH Crew logo on Michael’s shoulder.

“What?” Michael said, frowning at Ryan as he continued to stare.

Slowly, Ryan reached for his glove compartment and let the old compartment fall open. His mask rested inside with piles of loose ammo.

Michael stared at the skull mask for a long moment before laughing outright. “Ray was right! You are one of us.”

“Mind telling me what you two were doing, starting a gang war?” Ryan said, slamming the glove compartment shut before starting the car.

“It was a pick up,” Michael said, wiping his eye, “Ray handles the drugs in the city and two gangs were already having words when he showed up, you’re the Vagabond! Holy fuck!”

Ryan took a deep breath and gripped the wheel tighter. “You’re lucky I like you.”

Michael paused then looked at Ryan with wide, excited eyes. “Holy fuck, you’re the Vagabond. Ray’s going to be _pissed_ you didn’t tell him.”

“I’m pissed neither of you told me you were part of the Fakes,” Ryan snapped, trying to remember how he even got there.

“Are you shitting me? You sounded like this homely old guy,” Michael snorted, settling into his seat, “We didn’t know you were one of us.”

“I make murder jokes!” Ryan said, the wheel creaking under his fingers.

Michael chuckled and shrugged. “True, but we didn’t think of it.”

Ryan sighed through his nose and saw Ray’s apartment in the distance. “So you went to a drug deal and a gang fight broke out and neither of you were hurt?”

“Exactly,” Michael said with a nod before he frowned, “Wait, didn’t Geoff say he hired the Vagabond?”

Ryan scowled and slammed his car into park in the same spot. “Yes.”

“Fuck,” Michael laughed, slipping from the car.

Ryan didn’t move for a moment, staring hard at nothing. His brain was, for a lack of any words, somewhere else. Flashes of a past he thought he would never be able to recall burned at his eyes as his hopes for the futures started to crumble. If Ray was part of the Fakes, he wouldn’t sit well with going out to the country to a small farmhouse filled with memories from another time.

Granted, Ryan probably wouldn’t be able to sit still either. Tapping on his window startled him badly and his head snapped around, eyes wide and breathing hard. Michael was frowning at him on the other side, Ryan’s duffle on his back.

“You coming or not?” Michael said, muffled through the glass.

Ryan hesitantly nodded and shakily opened the door. Locking up his car, he trailed after Michael in a daze. Video games never triggered attacks or memories. Nothing looked real in games. On bad days, when everything reminded him of something horrible, Ray would talk him through his attacks.

So, he tried to make everything look unreal, tried to make himself a programmed puppet. He followed Michael up the stairs, barely hearing him complain that the elevator was broken. Michael knocking on the wooden door made him flinch and the world spun as Michael mumbled something under his breath and pulled out his phone.

“Shit,” Michael snapped, stuffing his phone in his pocket before he even tried calling anyone, “They’re at the penthouse. Hope you’re ready to meet the rest of the crew, Vaga.”

Ryan didn’t move as Michael brushed past him. Michael called his name a few times, but he had to grab his arm before Ryan crashed into reality again. Ryan stumbled after Michael, passing him the keys to his truck before he could even ask.

Ryan stared off into space the entire ride to the penthouse. Ghosts of the settlement Ryan had remembered visiting eras ago mixed with the harsh remembrance of war. He didn’t remember the car ride nor the elevator ride to the top floor of a pricy building.

He blindly followed Michael, freezing when he realized he didn’t have his mask. Michael was speaking as he shove the familiar rubber into his hands, Ryan’s duffle still on his back. Ryan pulled the mask on and felt like he was actually breathing for a change.

Michael opened the door to one of the penthouse suites and Ryan wanted to disappear into the floor. There was shouting and gunshots. There were people he didn’t know, nameless faces that fall to the mud with glass eyes.

There were spears, swords, shields, and guns. There was blood coating everything, mass graves scaring the ground. The stench of death made him gag and burnt plastic clung to his face. He fell to his knees into the mud and gore, searching for the body of a man he had never known.

He searched for different faces he buried, each holding their own mask. Ryan’s name echoed around him and he held his head. He should have done something, should have kept him alive even if Ryan never wanted anything to do with him. Even though he had Margret and James.

“Ryan! Fuck, Ryan!”

The voice was layered and echoed through his skull. Different voices he never heard but haunted his dream. Thin, gentle hands shook his shoulders and he looked up into brown eyes that were nearly black. They glittered like jewels in the light of an apartment. Other people stood in the background watching hesitantly.

Knees still in the mud, he reached out and cupped tan cheeks. Short, scruffy black hair was soft under his fingers as he ran his thumb over a beard he had seen in videos. “Hey there, big guy, you here with me?”

Ray. That was Ray. Ray was actually his soulmate. The weight of centuries pressed on his shoulders and a small voice told him he could kill Ray and everything would go away. The rest of him rocked with a croak trying to push a million thoughts out of his mouth at once.

Instead, he managed garbled Latin and looked between brown eyes that haunted him for centuries, threatening old age and death, threatening to never return again.

“I’m going to take the mask off, okay?” Ray said softly, fingers hooking on the bottom of his death mask and removed the smoldering plastic.

Ryan blinked against the light filtering in from where the mask had been blocking his vision. Ray was smiling at him. Ray was his soulmate, the one he never met, the one he had never heard speak.

He didn’t look like the Ryan he carried halfway across the United States to bury. He didn’t look anything like his other incarnations. Ryan held his face and grounded himself around this new face that he wouldn’t let turn pale and still.

“-ou’re the Vagabond?” Ray said, as the ringing and static in Ryan’s ears slowly faded away, “I knew you knew too much about murder.”

Ryan croaked a laugh and tried to speak again, more Latin and occasionally another dead language slipping out instead.

“It’s okay,” Ray said softly, thin fingers carding through Ryan’s hair, “You’re okay. Just take your time.”

“Ray, you know the Vagabond?” Geoff said slowly, coming to stand behind Ray and making Ryan flinch. There were other people here. They knew who Vagabond was. No one was supposed to know who Vagabond was unless he trusted them. Knowing ruined the whole cult thing.

“Yeah, he’s-“ Ray scowled and caught Ryan’s hands before they could slip away to search for his mask. Appearances, appearances, he had hid away for so long. “I’ll tell you later, he needs to just, not be here.”

There was more talking and Ryan flinched away from every voice, particularly one that squawked. Voices raised the more everyone talked and Ryan tried to pull his hands away again to cover his ears.

“Hey!” Ray snapped, silencing the room, “Be quiet until I can get him out of here.”

The silence was blissful. Ryan let Ray help him stand in a daze. He trailed after him feeling more and more like the ghosts he tried to forget. Ray got him to a quiet, comfy room with a soft bed and made him sit.

Once the door was closed, Ray kneeled in front of Ryan and took his hands. “Ryan, I’m going to start counting okay?” he said softly after making sure Ryan’s eyes were on him.

Ryan didn’t feel himself nod but he must have because Ray started counting. Slowly, he began counting along in English after filtering through the first few languages he ever learned. Ray smiled at him as he came back to Earth, away from his memories.

“There you go, you with me, big guy?” Ray said once Ryan’s death grip on his hands loosened.

Letting out a breath, Ryan nodded and smiled shakily at Ray. “Sorry,” he rasped, watching Ray stand.

“It’s fine, Rye,” Ray chuckled, pushing on Ryan’s shoulders until he was sitting with his back against the wall. Ray crawled onto bed beside him and held onto his hand. “It’s nice actually being here for one of your attacks instead of trying to help over the phone.

Ryan laughed weakly and closed his eyes. They were silent for a short while before Ryan opened his eyes. “So you’re a Fake.”

“Yeah, sorry for not telling you. I had a feeling you had at least murdered before but I had no idea you were the Vagabond,” Ray said, leaning his cheek again Ryan’s shoulder.

Ryan sighed and closed his eyes again. “I didn’t want to scare you away by telling you.”

“Are you kidding? This is fucking cool,” Ray laughed, sitting up slightly and leaning forward to look Ryan in the face, “I finally get to learn all of those cult secrets.”

Ryan snorted and laughed, afraid to open his eyes and face what he couldn’t for so long. “There’s no cult.”

“What? Sure there is,” Ray said, leaning back again, “Said so on the history channel.”

“I worked hard on those,” Ryan sighed, smiling fondly, “Historians are too easy to trick.”

Ray didn’t say anything but Ryan didn’t dare open his eyes and look at him. “Wait, so you made up the entire cult? Did you just read about those historic murders then?”

“I didn’t need to,” Ryan said, every muscle in his face contorting to keep his eyes closed, “I was there.”

There was a longer silence this time, but Ryan didn’t move. “You committed all of those murders? You’re fucking old.”

Ryan almost cracked one eye open at that. Ray’s tone was light and airy. He wasn’t playing along with the joke. “You believe me?” he said slowly, stiffening.

“Hey, I was born in 1793. I don’t have much room to talk,” Ray said, smiling up at Ryan when his eyes snapped open and he looked down at him.

“You-you’ve been here, all along?” Ryan whispered, reaching up with his free hand to cup Ray’s cheek.

“I mean, yeah? I’ve been other places,” Ray said, leaning into Ryan’s hand.

“I thought- after so-so many that I-I didn’t think I would get another chance.” Ryan’s mouth kept twisting to use any other language but English. “I’m so sorry, I-we never. We could have, so long ago.”

“Woah, calm down,” Ray said, sitting up and squeezing Ryan’s hand, “Don’t go back into an attack.”

Ryan’s eyes watered and Ray’s face blurred as he sniffed and choked on a laughed sob. “I’m not, I’m just happy,” he pushed out before freeing his hand to hug Ray tightly, “We can finally grow old.”

Ray frowned and gently ran his fingers through Ryan’s hair. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said softly, pressing his lips to Ryan’s head.

Ryan laughed against him and closed his eyes. He whispered out everything, every time he killed Ray in the past. He vaguely wondered if Ray could hear him, but by the way his breath caught in his throat, he guessed he could.

With every word, he clung to Ray tighter, hoping he wouldn’t abandon him for this, or kill him. Well, maybe killing him wouldn’t be too bad. He had been alive too long.

“Holy shit Rye,” Ray whispered, after he had finished speaking and a long, tense silence had surrounded him.

Ryan’s muscles started to shake under the strain. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

He felt panic burst into his throat when Ray started to pull away. His fingers curled into the purple hoodie he had seen in so many videos and he tried not to start hyperventilating. Ray was smiling at him, however.

“It’s okay, I’m not going anywhere,” Ray said, kissing Ryan’s forehead, “But you’ve gotta give me a moment, you just told me you’ve killed me a fuck tons of times.”

Ryan pushed out a laugh and let go of Ray. He tried to curl away from Ray’s touch, mumbling in Latin. Ray didn’t let go, he kept hugging Ryan’s shoulders and rested his cheek against the top of his head.

“Damn you’re old,” Ray said eventually, pressing kisses against Ryan’s head, “You owe me.”

Ryan looked up at Ray who was still smiling at him. “Yeah,” he croaked, before tackling Ray to the bed in a tight hug.

“You’re crushing me!” Ray laughed as he hugged Ryan back, ignoring how wet his hoodie was getting. Ryan smiled and felt like he could actually breathe under the weight of time.


	22. Pack Management

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan is a giant idiot and it takes about three people for him to realize it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
> 
> This is for melitjq
> 
> Please check out my other blog: vidparson.tumblr.com

           “Hey Rye,” Ray purred softly, wrapping his arms around Ryan and digging his chin into his shoulder slightly. He smiled as Ryan’s tail started wagging faster than before, hitting his legs. “Want to go to the movies or something?” His tail swished slowly behind him as Ryan’s pointed ears twitched.

“Sorry Ray,” Ryan said, turning his head to press a kiss to Ray’s check, “I promised Meg I’d help her find a gift for Lindsay.”

Ray’s ears folding back and he scowled when Ryan looked back at his computer. His tail curled tightly around his leg as pain pressed against his ribs. Forcing a smile, he pulled away and scratched behind Ryan’s ears. “Ah okay, have fun.”

Ryan turned and grinned at Ray, teeth sharp and tail wagging happily. He was much more a dog than he was a wolf. “Thanks, I’ll see you tonight after diner.”

Ray nodded and silently slipped from Ryan’s office. Every heart beat pressing a painfully hard stone against his ribs. Curling his shaking fingers into tight fists, Ray went right to the couch and started up the X-Box.

By the time Ryan was ready to leave, Ray had a ten game win streak with a multitude of brutal deaths under his belt. Ryan leaned over the back of the couch, watching Ray more than the game. He studied how Ray sat curled up on his legs, tail wrapped tightly around him, tapping gently.

His ears twitched and folded back as his tongue poked past his lips. Ryan smiled and reached out, carding his fingers through Ray’s soft, velvety hair.

Ray tensed then relaxed, pushing his head against Ryan’s hand, purring loudly. The game was easily forgotten in favor of leaning closer to Ryan. Chuckling, Ryan rounded the couch and sat, smiling as Ray nearly immediately crawled into his lap.

Ryan pressed his nose against Ray’s temple as he rubbed his head against Ryan’s, small, pointed cat ears tickling his nose as they flickered. Ryan’s own tail thumped loudly against the couch, the fluffy tail smacking Ray’s knee every so often.

Ray’s long, thin tail wrapped around Ryan’s leg as he purred louder. Ryan laughed lightly before he glanced at the clock and frowned. “Sorry, Ray. I’ve gotta get going,” he said as he stood and set Ray back on the couch.

Ray blinked at Ryan lazily for a moment, pupils thin slits. “Oh,” he said, lips twitching as he smiled, “Right.”

Ryan smiled back and kissed Ray’s temple before slipping out of their apartment. Ray stared at the game over screen on the TV for a long moment, knees pulled to his chest, arms and tail wrapped tightly around him.

His ears were flat against his head as he sighed. Snot dripped from his nose as his eyes stung. “Stupid wolves,” he hissed, wrinkling his nose and sniffling, “And their stupid pack thing.”

Pushing out a harsh sigh, he tried to pull his phone from his pocket without stretching out his legs. Growling when he couldn’t even get his hand into his pocket, he let his legs drop to the ground and pulled his phone out.

Once his knees were against his chest again, he rested his phone on top of them and poked at the screen. He found the picture of a pink haired cat, her natural dark red fur dull against the pink hair dye.

Lindsay was a long haired cat, her long, curtain like tail a blur behind her in the picture. Ray sighed as he pressed the green phone and waited.

“Yo, bitch,” Lindsay said and Ray had to really try not to laugh. He was sad damnit.

“Hey Lindsay,” Ray said, letting himself smile slightly although he frowned a moment later.

“Hey Ray, what’s up?” Lindsay said cheerfully and Ray began to wonder if he was a better actor than he thought, “You sound sad.” Alright, never mind. Just Ryan being oblivious then.

“Ryan’s out with Meg again, right?” Ray said, picking up the end of his tail and running his fingers over the soft fur.

“Yeah, you know wolves, can’t even go to the bathroom alone,” Lindsay said, chuckling slightly. When Ray didn’t laugh, a tense silence hung over the phone line. “Ray?”

Ray bit his lip then sighed, resting his cheek on the knee not balancing his phone. “Yeah, the pack thing,” he mumbled.

Lindsay was silent for a moment before she sighed. “You know they only see each other as siblings, right?”

Ray scowled and his ears folded back. “Sure,” he hissed, squeezing his tail tightly, making it spasm and try to yank free, “Fucking sure.”

Lindsay sighed and bumped her phone as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Ryan talks about you all of the time.”

“Sure doesn’t spend a lot of time here,” Ray spat, letting his tail go. It whipped back and forth, smacking into the cough, “We haven’t spent any time together since he and Meg became friends. When he’s here he’s either working or sleeping and then he runs off with Meg.”

“Wait, you two haven’t even gone on dates?” Lindsay said, something tapping in the background.

Ray sunk more into the large hoodie he was wearing that no longer smelt like Ryan. His tail stilled as he hugged his knees tighter. “Nope,” he said softly.

Lindsay hissed softly and Ray smiled slightly. At least someone other than him was mad. “Seriously? He’s not even here all of the time.”

“He has work and when he doesn’t he goes out with Meg,” Ray said, letting his arms drop to the couch. He picked up his tail and played with the end again.

“Well, Ryan’s never had a pack he’s chosen before,” Lindsay said slowly, “So he’s probably not sure how to divide the time.”

“I know,” Ray said, letting the fur shedding from his tail float to the ground. He could almost hear Ryan scold him to not get his fur everywhere, but the completely silent apartment made him want to shed on fucking everything. “That’s why I don’t say anything. Having a pack he actually cares about makes him so happy.”

“Well, yeah. But you’re a part of his pack too,” Lindsay said, shuffling awkwardly, “That’s why Meg brings me sometimes.”

Ray tensed before he narrowed his eyes. Before he could snap out any insult at all, he deflated and dropped his tail to hug his knees again. The three of them probably looked perfect together. Ryan was a purebred and so was Meg, both alpha wolves in their own right. Lindsay might have been a cat, but at least she was also a purebred long hair. Ray was just the mix-breed runt.

He always had felt inferior compared to Ryan, a big wolf with a bigger heart and that looked handsome as fuck. Next to him, Meg, and Lindsay? Ray would not only be over looked but almost like a mutt.

“Ray? You still there?” Lindsay said, startling Ray slightly. His knees knocked as he jumped, phone slipping from his knee and landing on the ground. He stared at his phone for a long moment as Lindsay continued to call his name.

With a lump in his throat, he leaned down and ended the call. He left his phone on the floor, ignoring the insistent buzzing as he turned back to his game. Part of his brain that was still working on the assumption that he was a living being that needed to eat wondered what he was going to diner and the rest of him decided that he didn’t really need to eat.

Meg frowned at her phone, scanning over the frantic texts Lindsay had sent her. She glanced at Ryan who was looking over the games, searching for any title Ray didn’t already have.

Pursing her lips, she turned back to her phone and told Lindsay to stay put. No need to barge into Ray’s apartment when she wasn’t the one he needed. “Hey, jackass,” she said, yanking hard on Ryan’s blond tail.

Ryan yipped and turned with a snarl. He pouted at Meg, yanking his tail from her fingers. “What the hell?” he snapped, running his fingers over the sore skin and fur.

Meg glared at him, hands on her hips. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Ryan’s brow furrowed before shrugging. “You’re going to need to be more specific.”

Meg rolled her eyes and threw her arms up. “You’ve been neglecting Ray!” she snapped, glaring at him as he frowned at her in confusion, “Haven’t you noticed him trying to get your attention?” When Ryan just stared at her she scowled and folded her arms. “When was the last time you two went on a date?”

Ryan opened his mouth then paused, mouth still open and brow creased. “Uh,” he said, shrinking slightly and eyes widening.

“Exactly,” Meg said, glancing at the games before pointing to the newest game that came out, “Get that then go home.”

Swallowing hard, Ryan snapped up the game and scurried over to the counter, tail between his legs. Meg sighed and shook her head. She knew that Ryan never brought Ray out with them because he knew how self-conscious Ray was, but she had assumed he was at least spending time with him when he was home.

Glancing at her phone again, she scanned the message again before shaking her head. Apparently she needed to teach him pack management. “You know, for someone so good at time management, you’re shit at pack management,” she told him when Ryan reappeared beside her.

Ryan scowled and frowned down at her. “I’ve never had a pack that’s liked me, you know that.”

“Yeah, doesn’t mean you’re excused from making your mate feel like shit,” Meg snapped back, shoving her phone in his face.

Ryan leaned back slightly, taking the phone and holding the screen away from his nose. Meg watched his eyes slide across the message, slowly widening. She sighed when he looked over her, tail still between his legs and ears laid back.

“Go home,” Meg told him, barely catching her phone when he tossed it into the air before bolting from the store. Shaking her head, she texted Lindsay before wandering out of the GameStop, wondering what the hell she was going to get Lindsay and what Ray would like as an apology gift. Lindsay had plenty of ideas for both.

Ray jumped a mile when the apartment door suddenly burst open. He leapt from the couch, standing so straight his back was arched awkwardly and his tail turned into a feather duster. His ears laid back as his pupils dilated to adjust from the TV screen to the real world.

Ryan stood in the doorway, GameStop bag dangling from his fingers and breathing hard. His ears were almost hidden in his hair they were folded so flat. His tail was tucked tightly between his legs.

Ray blinked at Ryan for a moment before slowly calming down. “Ryan? I thought you were out with Meg?” he said carefully, grabbing his tail and trying to flatten his fur.

Ryan stared at Ray from the doorway before closing the door with trembling fingers. He walked over, dropping the bag onto the couch as he passed. He wrapped Ray up in a tight hug, pressing his nose into Ray’s hair at the base of his ear.

Ray tensed then relaxed in Ryan’s hold, closing his eyes and trying not to purr. “Rye?” he said hesitantly, opening one eye to peak up at Ryan.

“I’m sorry,” Ryan croaked, nuzzling Ray’s temple, “I didn’t- why didn’t you say anything?”

Ray tensed again before pressing his face into Ryan’s shoulder. He curled his fingers into Ryan’s shirt since his arms were trapped between them and Ryan was nearly squeezing the life out of him. “You can do whatever you want, you’re an adult and going out with Meg makes you happy,” he mumbled against his shoulder.

“You being happy also makes me happy,” Ryan said as he leaned down to nuzzle Ray’s jaw, “You should have told me.”

Ray bit his lip, shaking slightly. “Okay. It's fine,” he said softly, closing his eyes and purring as Ryan nuzzled his cheek and ran his fingers through his hair.

“No, it’s not,” Ryan sighed, leaning back and cupping Ray’s cheek, “Ray, look at me.”

Ray hesitantly opened his eyes and looked up at Ryan, pupils absorbing nearly all of his irises. Ryan smiled at Ray and gently ran his fingers over his cheek. “You are my best friend and the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I want you to be happy and if I’m the one making you unhappy, I need you to tell me so I can stop being an idiot.”

Ray choked on a laugh and nodded, leaning into Ryan’s hand. “You are an idiot,” he said, smiling when Ryan’s tail started hitting their legs.

“A very big one,” Ryan said, nodding solemnly, smiling when Ray laughed again, “I’m so sorry, Ray. I didn’t mean to make you second to everything else.”

“You’ve never had a pack before,” Ray said, shaking his head slightly, “It's fin-“ he tensed and frowned when Ryan’s hand slid from his cheek to cover his mouth.

“No, now you listen,” Ryan said, kissing Ray’s forehead and ignoring the rough tongue licking his hand, “I’ve never had a pack before but that doesn’t mean I had to make you feel excluded. I should have brought you with us even though I know it would have made you slightly uncomfortable because you were my pack long before Lindsay and Meg were. You belong with us, no matter what other people think.”

Ray sniffed, eyes turning red as snot oozed from his nose onto Ryan’s hand. Ryan smiled softly down at Ray then kissed his forehead. “I’m sorry and I’ll do whatever you want to make it up to you.”

Ray sniffed then swallowed hard as a few tears slipped free from his eyes. He let Ryan’s now wrinkled shirt go to rub his eyes when Ryan removed his hand and grabbed the tissue box from the side table. He took the tissue offered to him and blew his nose. Ryan waited as Ray cleaned his face up and sniffed, wiping the snot and salt water from his hand with another tissue.

He jumped when Ray took the tissues and tossed them onto the couch before knocking the tissue box from Ryan’s hand. He happily kissed back when Ray surged up to kiss him. He held him tighter and closed his eyes as they kissed.

“You’re doing everything I say,” Ray said when they parted, “For a week.”

“Anything you say,” Ryan nodded, smiling at Ray as he gave him the first honest smile in days.

Ray sniffed and nodded, pushing Ryan to sit before claiming his lap and snuggling close. “We’re snuggling and playing multiplayer until I’ve killed you a hundred times.”

“Your wish is my command,” Ryan said, relaxing slightly as Ray laughed and rubbed his head against his shoulder.

After one hundred deaths, he suffered through a hundred more before Ray asked him to make them diner. Letting Ray cling to him the entire time, Ryan cooked his mate’s favorite things. How had he missed Ray seeking his attention every five minutes?

Once they had eaten, Ray chose a series of movies he knew Ryan hated and watched with a twisted smile as Ryan groaned at every overused cliché and idiot hero. As the credits rolled for the last movie, Ray turned in Ryan’s lap and kissed him senseless.

“I can live through more movies if that’s the reward I get,” Ryan breathed, eyes glazed over and smile goofy.

“Good,” Ray purred, pressing kisses to Ryan’s jaw, “Because that’s what we’re doing all week.”

Ryan groaned then laughed as Ray did. “Anything for you,” he said, nuzzling Ray’s temple.

Ray’s purring got louder as he snuggled closer, his bent and sore legs be damned. “And dates, every night,” he sighed as Ryan rubbed his back.

“Anywhere you want,” Ryan nodded, kissing Ray’s temple.

Ray smiled and kissed Ryan again, loud purrs rumbling through the both of him as Ryan ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed down his back.

Lindsay smirked as she peaked over Meg’s shoulder at her phone. “Guess we’re not going to be seeing Ryan for the rest of the week.”

“It should be the rest of the month,” Meg huffed, smiling when Lindsay kissed her cheek, “But I suppose we’ll be seeing a lot more of Ray.”

“Once he can walk straight,” Lindsay snorted, frowning when Meg started laughing. Her eyes widened when she scrolled down to the long list of things Ray had decided they would be doing. At the very bottom was a small note everything sex involved would be switched from what they normally do.

“Guess Ryan’s not going to be walking for a while,” Meg giggled to try and calm down.

“Are you kidding? Ray’s a genius,” Lindsay smiled, shaking her head and wrapping her arms around Meg’s waist, “If Ryan can’t walk for a few days, he has to spend more time at home with Ray.”

Meg snorted and started laughing all over again. Lindsay smiled and plucked Meg’s phone from her hands and picked her up. “Where are we going?” Meg laughed, holding onto Lindsay’s arms.

“Date,” Lindsay said smugly, “Ray wasn’t the only one feeling left out.”

Meg’s shoulders bunched up near her ears and she groaned, going limp in Lindsay’s arms. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly, smiling at Lindsay over her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, you only have two weeks to make it up to me,” Lindsay said, smirking. About an hour later, Ryan laughed and showed Ray a text he got from Meg that was eerily similar.

Ray smiled brightly and texted Lindsay a long stream of emoji’s before dragging Ryan out of the apartment for their first date.


	23. Team RJMGR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray is the only son and heir to the Narvaez fortune a rich family second only to the Scnhee's. Ray is a hunter in training, one day during his vacations at home he is gifted a bull faunus servant by his parents. Ryan was trained from very young to serve Ray in anyway and Ray just wants him to be free to do whatever he wants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For xanz.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
> 
> Like my writing? Read more at: vidparson.tumblr.com

Ray is the only son and heir to the Narvaez fortune a rich family second only to the Scnhee's. Ray is a hunter in training, one day during his vacations at home he is Gifted a Bull faunus slave by his dad sadly faunus slavery is normal in this world and ray dislikes it, the Bull ryan seems trained at birth to be rays companion and does everything for his master which really makes ray feel guilty. –xanz

 

           When Ray was ten, his parents pushed him out the front door of their mansion with bland smiles and halfhearted waves to go to Sanctum Academy. He wasn’t very big or very strong compared to the other little huntsmen and huntresses. But he was faster than the rest of them, able to outrun the others in and out of training.

            He never had much skill with dust but he loved learning to work with weapons. His skill was expected, according to most of his teachers, he was a Narvaez, after all. His family was the suppliers of the raw resources that made nearly every weapon in the world. They owned the market, but were always second best to the Schnee family who owned the world with their Dust supplies.

            He was second in his classes for weapons training. He loved daggers and swords, guns and rifles. Gauntlets and hammers, whips and scythes. The only person ahead of him was Pyrrha Nikos, but she was at least nice to him.

            He wasn’t the best at the rest of his classes, but he passed. He could identify all different kinds of grim, the creatures that huntsmen and huntresses were hired to kill, but he couldn’t tell you anything about the faunus wars.

            On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, he was sure his parents would tell him he could no longer train to be a huntsmen. However, when he was gifted with a brand new weapon equipped with technology that was yet to be released to the world, he realized his parents didn’t want him to have anything to do with the family business at all.

            Overhearing one late night, a drunken conversation between his mother and her assistant, he learned that his younger sister would be taking over the family business. Smiling to himself, he slipped back into his bed and settled into the night. Fucking perfect, he sucked at business anyway.

            Haven Academy was a completely different monster from Sanctum. He might not have Pyrrha to compete against anymore, but being second best in his classes didn’t seem to matter when everyone else was exactly the same.

            Clutching a heavy white cylinder to his chest, he gave his fellow peers a nervous smile. A few smiled back, others just ignored him. Taking a deep breath, he refocused on the headmaster’s words, glancing out over the dense forest they were about to be launched into.

            He spread his feet apart, swallowing as the first student was launched into the air and into the forest. He flinched every time another person was launched, readying himself as the girl next to him went sailing.

            Gritting his teeth, he felt the force of the launch pad rocketing him into the air, the tails of his battle uniform flapping behind him. The cylinder in his hand bent and molded to his aura and curved into a large, elegant hook.

            Trying to dodge tree branches the best he could, he snagged the hook on a tree limb, swinging to a stop. Letting out the breath he had been holding, his weapon returned to a cylindrical shape and he dropped to the forest floor.

            “Stupidest partnering thing, ever,” he grumbled as he looked himself over, brushing leaves from his shoulders. A black, button up shirt was tucked nicely into comfortable black slacks. Heavy military boots thumped against the ground as he walked deeper into the woods, looking for the other students that were launched into the woods with him.

            Over his shirt was a slimming red vest with a paisley pattern sewn into the fabric. Two tails hung off of the back of his vest, falling just above the back of his knees. A heavy black belt hung from his hips, his weapon being slipped into a holster next to heavy bags of survival gear and first aid supplies.

            “Hey! Anyone near here!” Ray shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. His thick, black rimmed glasses slipped slightly down his nose as his voice echoed back to him.

            Sighing, he started a light job through the woods towards the objective, old ruins with an artifact he needed to retrieve. As he pushed aside branches and bushes, he looked carefully around him, biting his lip. What the fuck was he going to do if he never made eye contact with someone? What if they all decided to team up, leaving him alone with the one group with three who didn’t want him anyway? That would be just his luck.

            Sighing, he pushed himself forward, stumbling from the brush and yelping when a large grim slammed into ground next to him. Blinking as the beast turned to dust, he held his hand over his chest and tried to calm down.

            “A little help!” a voice shouted over a low roar.

            Ray’s head snapped to look at the clearing and at a short boy with the sides of his head shaved and bright blue hair on top. Heavy silver gauntlets weighed on his hands. Spikes stuck out of the knuckles of the gauntlets, sinking into the grim rushing at the boy. Silver armor covered his chest and arms, arms left bare.

            Three other grim roared as another of their companions died to the boy’s gauntlets. Ray snapped up his weapon and the white metal morphed under his fingers instantly. Before he was finished raising his arms and taking aim, the weapon had turned into a gun.

            With ease he put a bullet, powered but a small amount of very simple dust, into each of the grims heads. The boy stared at him wide eyed, arms dropped to his sides as the bullets raced back to him as his weapon reformed again.

            “You okay?” Ray said, jogging over to the student.

            “Holy fuck,” the student said, laughing lightly. He held his hand out to Ray, still in his gauntlet. “I’m Jeremy.”

            Ray carefully took Jeremy’s hand with a crooked grin. “I’m Ray, guess we’re partners now?”

            “Hell yeah,” Jeremy laughed, letting Ray’s hand go, “How the fuck did you do that?”

            “Oh, my aura bends special kinds of metal,” Ray said, holding his weapon up before slipping the cylinder back into the holster.

            “Shit man,” Jeremy snorted, shaking his head and holding his gauntlets up, “All I can do is punch things and make a finger gun.”

            “Dust?” Ray said, grabbing Jeremy’s hand and looking over the gauntlet. His pointer finger had a hole in the tip, a flexible barrel resting inside.

            “Yep,” Jeremy said, grinning at Ray, “Let’s get going.”

            Ray nodded and followed after Jeremy into the forest. After a short awkward silence which Ray broke croaking out about video games, they talked the entire walk to the ruins about games. Ray was never more relieved to have to be in a group.

            When they arrived to the ruins, two strange chess pieces were missing from their pedestals. “Which one do you want?” Jeremy said as he looked over the black and white pieces.

            Ray glanced around then scooped up the Queen. “White Queen?” he said, holding the piece out to Jeremy.

            “Works for me,” Jeremy grinned, heading back toward the forest, “Let’s go to the next objective.”

            Before they cross into the dense woods again, a shrill squawked startled them. Wiping around, they watched as a tall, gangly student with wide blue eyes and a flowing cape raced out of the woods. A moment later, a giant dragon-like grim burst from the forest with a roar.

            “Ah fuck,” Ray hissed as the student saw them and made a beeline for them.

            “That thing is big,” Jeremy said, sinking into a fighting position, arms raising.

            “Think you can get it to hold still?” Ray said, pulling out his own weapon.

            “Maybe?” Jeremy mumbled, frowning as the student and grim got closer and closer to them. He had a simple, light shirt on under his robe and tight pants. Soft, rabbit ears were folded back against his head. “Where the fuck is his weapon?”

            “Don’t know, you distract, I’ll get him out,” Ray said, his weapon shifting into a shield.

            Jeremy nodded and rushed the grim while Ray dove for the boy. Hooking his arm around his waist, he raised his shield just as the grim swiped at them with its claws. The force of the blow sent them sideways, back towards the ruins.

            The boy squawked the entire fall to the ground, groaning when they landed and Ray let him go. Hoping to his feet, Ray’s weapon shifted again as he watched Jeremy dodge the grim’s tail and claws.

            “You okay?” Ray said, not looking at the student who was shifting beside him.

            “Yeah, thanks mate,” The boy said, giving Ray a lopsided grin when he finally looked at him.

            “No problem,” Ray said, awkwardly smiling back, “Where’s your weapon?”

            “Right here,” the student said, pulling at his cape, “Bloody thing startled me and was too big for just me.”

            Ray’s brow furrowed but then shrugged. “Okay, sure, think you can help now that we’re here?”

            “Yep!” the student said, hopping to his feet. He wobbled for a moment before tugging his cape around him.

            Ray nodded then stumbled away when the black cape started to glow red. “Distract him!” the student said, eyes following Jeremy and the grim.

            Ray hesitantly rushed toward the grim. He grabbed his weapon with both hands, the metal splitting into two daggers. As Jeremy kept the grim focused on him, Ray raced up its tail and started jabbing at the hard scales, searching for a weak spot.

            He was about to be launched from the grim’s back when he heard the student shout. Weapon turning into a shield again, he made sure Jeremy leapt away before letting the grim launch him away.

            Peaking over his shield, he watched as the grim was suddenly consumed in flames. With a gasp, he hit a tree and just managed to catch himself before falling to the ground. He winced when the grim roared and then a shout echoed around them.

            “GAVIN!”

            Ray winced when a body slammed into the grim from above, crushing the skull and turning the grim to dust. Ray dropped to the ground with his jaw dropped, Jeremy standing next to him with the same expression.

            As the fire’s burned out and the dust cleared, another student with a massive hammer was left standing in a crater. Heavy, bulky, black armor hung from his short frame. His wild, red hair clung to his forehead, soaked in sweat.

            The harm shined black in the sun, gold trim traced the hammer and the armor. The student was breathing hard, glaring right at Gavin who gasped and smiled brightly.

            “Micoo!” Gavin gasped, rushing over and hugging the student.

            “You fucking idiot!” Michael snarled, hugging Gavin back, “I told you not to go into the cave!”

            “Sorry!” Gavin squawked, giving Michael a sheepish smile.

            Ray and Jeremy shared looks then glanced at the woods behind them. Before they could slip away, Gavin had their hands and was pulling them toward Michael. After stiff introductions and Gavin and Michael arguing over which piece to take, the four of them started heading for the objective, the black and white queens in hand.

            “So, dust is woven into that thing?” Jeremy said, poking at Gavin’s cape.

            “Yep!” Gavin said, smiling proudly, “Made it myself!”

            “Nice hammer,” Ray said, smiling at Michael.

            Michael glanced at Ray then grinned, hammer resting on his shoulder. “Thanks, you’ve got a fucking weird weapon.”

            Ray shrugged and held his weapon up, “I like it, I don’t have to limit myself.”

            Michael nodded and glanced at Jeremy and Gavin animatedly talking. “I think we’re going to be a team.”

            “Probably,” Ray said, glancing at the white chess piece Michael was holding, “We chose the same piece.”

            Michael grinned at him and they forged forward. There weren’t any more incidents along the way. Between the three of them, they kept Gavin out of trouble.

            They were placed in a team together, team RJMG, with Ray being the leader. Despite his arguments that he would be a horrible leader, the headmaster was insistent and eventually Ray dropped the subject.

            Regardless of how goofy Gavin was, how angry Michael got, and how chill Jeremy was, they worked well together, better than most other teams. When in battle simulations, they were the most coordinated and managed to maintain a massive win streak.

            By the time their first break arrived, they were almost inseparable, especially Michael and Gavin who had known each other for years before the Academy. Sadly, they each had to go home for the different breaks.

            Ray trudged up the steps of his family’s mansion, already wishing for school to be back in session. When he opened the door, he was met with the serving staff pulling poppers and his sister holding a pristine cake she insisted she baked herself. Despite his absent parents, Ray found himself smiling and enjoying the welcome back.

            “Oh, Ray!” Meg said, grabbing his arm tightly and pulling him toward two faunus workers he didn’t recognize as being part of their normal house staff, “Mom and Dad got them for us!”

            Ray frowned and looked between his sister to the faunus. One was a short woman with pointed cat ears. She had a crooked smile, and long red hair. The other was much taller with soft blond hair and long bull horns. Velvet ears were tucked under his horns and he smiled awkwardly at Ray. Both faunus bowed to them.

            “Got them?” Ray said slowly as Meg let go of his arm and hugged the woman.

            “Yep! Apparently they had them trained to assist us,” Meg said as the faunus laughed and hugged her back.

            Ray frowned and looked back at the bull faunus. He forced a smile and held his hand out. “I-uh-I’m Ray,” he croaked.

            The faunus chuckled and took his hand. “I’m Ryan,” he said before bowing, pressing the back of Ray’s hand to his forehead.

            Ray’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He could hear Michael and Gavin telling him all about the current faunus fight for civil rights. About how there were groups of faunus still treated like they were slaves, trained to be servants to specific people.

            When Ryan straightened and let Ray’s hand go, he was shaking. He snagged Meg’s arm and pulled her away. “Where are they?” he hissed, trying to resist the urge to grab his weapon.

            Meg’s brow furrowed as Ryan and the female faunus frowned at them. “Who?” Meg said, tilting her head to the side, “Mom and Dad? They’re be back from a business trip tonight.”

            Ray forced himself to let out a calming breath and let Meg’s arm go. “We need to talk,” he said softly.

            Meg frowned then shrugged. She waved for the two faunus to stay where they were before letting Ray lead her into his old room. “What is it?” she said once the door was closed, arms folded.

            “We can’t force them to work for us!” Ray said, grabbing his weapon and fiddling with the cylinder. The metal bent and molded awkwardly under his fingers.

            Meg frowned, arms dropping to her sides. “Why not?” she said, dropping onto his bed, “Lindsey has already been a huge help and Ryan’s been enrolled at Haven as part of your team.”

            Ray flinched and squeezed his eyes shut. “Meg, you’re not going to like this,” he said softly, sitting next to his sister.

            By the time he finished explaining, Meg’s eyes were wide and watery. Her jaw was tight and set as her left eye twitch. “I had no idea,” she said softly, fingers curling in Ray’s dust bed spread, “I just thought they were specialists.”

            Ray shook his head and sighed, sitting back. “If our parents really got them for us, we can free them, technically.”

            Meg nodded slowly and stood, hands in tight fists. With one short look, they went back to the two faunus who literally hadn’t moved. Meg pulled Lindsey aside as Ray gave Ryan an apologetic smile.

            Ryan narrowed his eyes as Ray tried to explain, words failing him. When he finished he stared up at Ryan, trying not to curl into a ball like he wanted to. Ryan stared at him for a long moment, brow furrowed and tense.

            “You’re not wrong,” Ryan eventually said slowly, “but I don’t want to be free?”

            Ray stared blankly at Ryan for a long moment before opening his mouth, brow furrowing. Ryan raised an eyebrow as no sound escaped Ray and he closed his mouth again. “What?” he said after a moment.

            “I don’t want to be free,” Ryan shrugged, folding his arms, “Oddly enough, this is the best option for me, there’s nothing for me outside of serving you, plus I get to a prestigious academy that doesn’t normally have faunus students.”

            Ray pursed his lips then closed his eyes and sighed. “Okay, I mean. Whatever you choose, I guess?” he said, opening his eyes again to find Ryan smiling softly at him.

            “Thank you,” Ryan said, chuckling as Ray started to blush.

            Ray tried to blink his blush away, pulling at the bottom of his vest. “Uh, yeah! No problem, it’s just. Right,” he croaked out, shifting awkwardly on his feet, “I mean, once we’re done at Haven, you could always become a huntsmen in your own name.”

            Ryan nodded, chuckling when Ray gave another awkward smile. “That would work,” he said, hesitantly reaching out and grabbing Ray’s shoulder, “You okay?”

            “Fine! I just-I don’t know, actually,” Ray forced a laugh, pulling out his weapon and letting the metal bend under his fingers.

            Ryan let go of his shoulder, jumping when Ray’s head snapped up. “What’s your weapon?”

            “It’s a sword,” Ryan said, chuckling, “I’m afraid I’m not allowed to have it until we leave.”

            Ray scowled and shook his head. He headed for his parents office, waving for Ryan to follow him. “We can’t practice if you don’t have it,” he said when Ryan trotted after him with a confused frown.

            Ryan paused mid-step in surprise before trailing after Ray with a stunned look. They passed Lindsey and Meg who were glaring at each other. Ray spared them only a glance before pushing on. He’d hear about their argument later, he was sure.

            Breaking into his parent’s office was easier than he remembered. Ryan nervously stood in the doorway while Ray picked the safe’s lock. “Can’t believe they changed the code,” Ray grumbled as he listened for the tumble of the lock, “I only broke into it once.”

            Ryan snorted from the doorway, reaching up to rub his antler. “Why do you know how to do this?” he said with a shaky smile.

            “They took my games from me a lot when I was still living here. Apparently it’s not proper,” Ray snorted, grinning as the safe popped open, “I had to steal them back a few times.”

            Ryan huffed and glanced down the hallway. His gut twisted nervously as Ray dug around in the long, deep safe. A moment later Ray made a soft whoop as he pulled out a plain broad sword in a bland leather sheath.

            “This it?” Ray said, holding the sword up, brow furrowed.

            “Yep,” Ryan said, grinning brightly and scurrying over. He took the sword and quickly slipped the sheath around his waist.

            Ray blinked at him slowly, eyes narrowing. “It’s just, a sword? No dust of extra attachments? And where’s your armor?”

            Ryan just gave Ray a blank stare, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I don’t have any and it’s just a sword.

            “Oh, you are going to die,” Ray said, turning back to the safe and putting everything he moved in its proper place.

            Ryan leaned back and frowned. “I’ll have you know I was the best fighter in the camp.”

            Ray flinched then shook his head, closing the safe. “Fighting other people is different from fighting a grim. Sides, a simple broad sword is primary academy stuff.”

            “I do just fine,” Ryan huffed, folding his arms. His ears twitched as Ray snorted and grinned up at him.

            “I’ll be the judge of that,” he said, turning toward the door, “Now let’s get out of here.”

           

Ryan was rather surprised by the freedoms Ray allowed him. He could carry his father’s sword everywhere, he didn’t have to trail after Ray everywhere, and he was actually heavily encouraged not to. Granted there was nothing else he could do with his time so he did so anyway.

            Lindsey and Meg came to some agreement about their situation that they refused to share with the boys. Lindsey continued the duties they were thrust into when they were young.

            Ryan found himself liking Ray more than he thought he would. He wasn’t the douchebag huntsmen he was expecting. He was a nerd, actually, who played games all of the time and lazed about when he wasn’t playing or training.

            Fighting him was an entirely different experience. His weapon could change to suddenly and smoothly that keeping up with his fast attacks was difficult. He was fast and unrelenting, but he was always there with a compliment and a criticism.

            Honestly, he couldn’t have asked for more. He was more than happy to serve his every wish which was more or less the point. Regardless, no matter how many times Ryan asked Ray what he could do for him, he always told him the same.

            “Just do what you want, Rye,” Ray said, smiling gently up at him.

            Ryan had long since given up shooting back that he wanted to serve Ray, the human would always worm his way out of giving a different answer. Eventually he just stopped trying and did what he wanted.

            Ray’s parents didn’t return to the mansion the entire time Ray was home and when he left they sent no message acknowledging that he had even come home. Ray just shrugged when Ryan asked him why.

            Haven was a massive campus. Ryan already felt unbelievably small on the tram ride to the academy, now he felt minuscule, rushing to keep up with Ray who casually walked the halls to their room.

            Ray chuckled as Ryan stayed as close to him as he could get, trying to crouch down to hide behind his back. “You’ll be fine, Ryan. Vav’s a faunus too and there’s a few others.”

            “It’s not that,” Ryan said, hesitantly reaching out and taking Ray’s hand, “There’s just more people than I’m used to.”

            Ray tensed and frowned, holding onto Ryan’s hand just as tightly as he was holding onto him. He took the least traveled routes back to his room, glad when Ryan relaxed slightly. He sighed when they reached the door and random shouting and yelling was muffled by the thick, white door.

            Chuckling, Ray pushed the door open to his three teammates piled on top of each other. Michael was shouting at Gavin who was trying to escape by climbing over Jeremy who was laughing too hard to help.

            Ryan blinked at the mess as Ray rolled his eyes and closed the door behind them. As the door clicked closed, all three boys stopped and looked over at them. Ryan went tense, grasping at air to find Ray’s hand again.

            “Hey guys,” Ray said as he stepped ahead of Ryan, catching his hand.

            “X-Ray!” Gavin gasped, nearly knocking the three of them over in his mad dash to hug Ray.

            “Hey man!” Jeremy said, coming over as Gavin nearly tackled Ray to the ground. Ryan smiled as Ray hugged his friends, looking up and tensing when he saw Michael looking at him, eyes narrowed.

            “Who’s that?” Michael said, pointing at Ryan.

            Ray blinked at Michael before looking at Ryan and smiling, their hands still clasped together. “Oh, this is Ryan,” he said, pulling away from Jeremy and Gavin.

            Ryan clung tightly to Ray’s hand as he awkwardly waved. “Hello,” he croaked, ears twitching. His hand dropped to the hilt of his sword when the other boys just started at Ryan. He played with the frayed fabric wrapped around the handhold.

            “Ray?” Gavin said slowly, turning to look at Ray with wide eyes.

            Ray sighed and let go of Ryan’s hand to herd the others to the beds. Ryan was instantly on Ray’s heels, trying his hardest not to make eye contact. He was trained to kill monsters, not to communicate with other intelligent beings.

            Once everyone was seated on Jeremy’s bed with Ray and Ryan resting on Ray’s bed, Ray explained everything. All three faces darkened and Ryan flinched when Gavin shot him a look of pity.

            “And before you even start to yell,” Ray snapped, cutting Michael off when he opened his mouth, “He wants to be here. Once school is over and he doesn’t need my parents to pay his tuition, he’ll be his own huntsmen.”

            Michael deflated, pouting slightly. Jeremy was shifting awkwardly, biting his lip. Gavin swallowed hard and hopped up, offering Ryan his hand.

            “Welcome to the team!” Gavin said, smiling brightly.

            Ryan tried to smile back, taking Gavin’s hand. “Thanks,” he said softly.

            After unpacking, and Ryan trying his best to answer all questions shot his way, they realized that Ryan didn’t have a bed. After searching the entire campus for someone who could help them get a bed, they eventually broke their way into a storage room and just took an extra bed.

            “Do you just, not care about the rules?” Ryan mumbled to Ray as they walked back to their room.

            Ray shrugged and smiled at Ryan. “Only when it’s necessarily.”

            Ryan snorted and smiled back. The others were getting ready for bed as Ryan sat on his bed and just watched them while cleaning his sword. He didn’t have much to his name, minus his sword. Michael kept glancing at him, eyes narrowed.

            “So Ryan,” Gavin said, jumping into the bed next to him, “What else can your sword do?”

            Ryan blinked at Gavin, carefully sheathing his sword. “Nothing, it’s just a sword.”

            “It’s gotta have dust, right?” Jeremy said, trying to catch a glimpse of the blade, “As a coating?”

            “Nope,” Ryan said, setting the sword aside.

            “It’s literally just a sword,” Ray said, smiling at them from his bed across the room, “He’s good with it though.”

            “He’ll be dead meat,” Michael snorted, settling into his bed, “Go to bed morons, we have classes in the morning.”

            Classes were the best thing ever. Ray and the rest of the team looked bored to hell but Ryan was scribbling down every word. “You don’t understand,” Ryan told Ray, eyes wide and smile bright, “I never got to learn anything beyond fighting and how to read and write.”

            Ray frowned before forcing a smile and asking if Ryan could explain his notes since he wasn’t paying attention.

            The team fighting was something else. Since they were the only team with five people, one of them had to sit out and be traded in. Ryan was the only not allowed to tap out since the professor wanted to see how he fought.

            “Ryan, good,” he said, patting Ryan’s shoulder at the end of the match, “You already work well with your team, especially Ray. You’ll fit in here.”

            Ray couldn’t help but smile at the look on Ryan’s face. His eyes were wide and jaw dropped. The sheer happiness in his face as he smiled made Ray’s heart tighten and he tried to focus on what the professor was saying now.

           

            “What are they doing?” Ryan whispered to Ray, having to lean over.

            “They’re going on a date,” Ray whispered back, smiling fondly at his team. Jeremy looked stiff in his button down, face flush. Michael was quiet and pouting, arms folded tightly. Gavin had a giant goofy grin on his face, struggling on the button on his jacket.

            “All three of them?” Ryan said, brow furrowing. They were sitting shoulder to shoulder on Ray’s bed.

            “Together, yes,” Ray said with a nod, legs swinging and making the bed squeak.

            Ryan blinked slowly at Ray before shrugging and nodding. He sat up and watched as Gavin finally got his shit together and dragged Michael and Jeremy out of the room. “They’re a weird bunch,” he said with a nod.

            Ray laughed and flopped back onto his bed. “Yeah, they are. We love them anyway, though.”

            Ryan laughed quietly, looking down at his hands. “What’s it like? Dating and shit?”

            Ray blinked at Ryan’s back before settling into the bed again. “I donno, I’ve never dated anyone.”

            Ryan nodded and laid back as well, folding his hands on his stomach. “Seems nice?” he said turning his head to look at Ray.

            “It’s supposed to be,” Ray said with an awkward shrug.

            Ryan stared at Ray for a long time as he closed his eyes and sighed. He traced the edges and lines of Ray’s face. Ray and the others had all told him he was oblivious about somethings and he knew that he was. He wasn’t about how he felt. Smiling tiredly to himself, he sat up and wandered over to Michael’s TV resting in the corner of their room.

            “Games?” Ryan said, looking at Ray over his shoulder.

            “Hell yeah,” Ray said, jumping up and smiling brightly at Ryan.

            As they sat close together, Ray nearly slumped in Ryan’s lap as they played, Ryan wondered who the oblivious one really was.

            When Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy returned, Ryan slipped from the room to go to the bathroom. He honestly didn’t want to hear about how their date went.

            He lazily brushed his teeth and cleaned his horns. When he returned to the room, the door was cracked and he could just make out Ray blushing in the slit. Frowning, he paused outside the door, watching Ray pout and glare at the others.

            “Shut up,” Ray huffed, turning away and focusing on his bed.

            “Oh come on Ray,” Michael said, sitting on his bed which was now pushed together with Gavin and Jeremy’s, “It’s fucking obvious.”

            “Ray and Ryan, sitting in a tree!” Gavin and Jeremy sang together poorly.

            “Assholes!” Ray snapped, throwing his pillow at them as they laughed.

            “Just ask him out already X-Ray!” Gavin said as Jeremy got a face full of pillow.

            “Yeah, he looks like you like you’re his world or something,” Jeremy said, throwing Ray’s pillow back at him, “It’s kind of disgusting.”

            Ray’s face turned a darker shade of red and he turned away, clutching his pillow to his chest. “I can’t,” he said softly, tossing his pillow on the bed, “Poor guy is already stuck with me, he doesn’t need to know I might be in love with him or whatever.”

            Ryan went tense as Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy shared worried looks. “He’s here by choice,” Jeremy said slowly after a short silent argument between the three of them.

            “But, what if he just said that to make me feel better? I always feel like I’m forcing him to do things,” Ray said as he hopped onto his bed and pulled his knees to his chest, “I feel like I’m forcing him to do everything.”

            Ryan’s eyes glazed over as his heart tried to beat out of his chest. Hesitantly, he reached out and pushed the door open, everyone’s heads snapping over to look at him.

            Ray’s face suddenly went from bright red to deathly pale. He tried to scramble back as Ryan walked over to him in a daze. Dropping his bathroom tote, he wrapped his arms tightly around Ray and pulled him tight against him.

            Michael grabbed Jeremy and Gavin and yanked them from the room as Ray went still in his arms. “You’re not making me do anything,” Ryan said softly once the door clicked close, “I-this is more than anything I could have asked for. I have friends and I’m learning things.”       He pulled back and cupped Ray’s cheeks. “I’m happy, I promise.”

            Ray’s eyes watered and became stained red. He reached up and squeezed Ryan’s hands. “I-I’m sorry,” he pushed out, closing his eyes, “Don’t tell me not to be because I am.”

            Ryan laughed and pressed their foreheads together. “That’s okay,” he said softly, closing his own eyes.

            Ray choked out a laugh, squeezing Ryan’s hands again. They were silent for a moment before Ray cleared his throat and Ryan’s eyes fluttered open to look into brown pools. “So, uh. How much of that did you hear?”

            Ryan smirked and Ray’s face slowly turned bright red. Before Ray could speak, Ryan gently pressed their lips together in a soft kiss. Ray gasped against him before melting, kissing back.

            When they parted they were startled by a joyful squawk from the door. They looked over as Michael started to slow clap, Jeremy pretended to wipe away a prideful tear, and Gavin launched himself at them.

            “Ryan!” Ray gasped as Ryan stepped back to avoid Gavin tackling Ray to the bed.

            “Yes?” Ryan said, smirking as Ray glared at him over Gavin’s head.

            “Well done,” Jeremy said, patting Ryan’s shoulder.

            “So when are the baby bulls coming?” Michael said, smirking as Ryan’s face turned bright red.

            “When’s the kits coming?” Ray snapped back, making all three of their team mates turn bright red.

            Smirking, Ray pushed Gavin off and wrapped his arms around Ryan’s waist to press his face into his back. Ryan smiled softly and rested his hands on top of Ray’s.

            Fighting off their blushes, their team mates smiled fondly at them before climbing into bed and letting them have their moment before they teased them anymore.

 


	24. What's an Incubus to do?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray accidentally attracts an incubus named Ryan, but he does not want to have sex with him. The only way for Ryan to leave is if they have sex to complete the summon. However, Ray finds Ryan very attractive and since they're kind of stuck with each other, they have fun doing non-sex things. Ryan falls hard and is all confused and embarrassed because he knows nothing about normal relationships.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment! 
> 
> Want to read more? Go to: vidparson.tumblr.com

           Maybe he was losing his touch, he had been alive for some time and most of that time wasn’t spent on Earth either. No matter how much of a natural seducer he was, he wasn’t going to get anywhere with a human from the most recent modern era. Maybe he was still stuck in an old century, using old methods. Had he adapted to the language correctly? There had to be something wrong, he had never had this much trouble before. He was even summoned this time!

Then again, the guy sitting further down the bar was worse than he was, pushy and with horrible pick-up lines to boot, and he was still getting flirted with. Ryan had even changed tactics! From smoldering to gentlemanly. He used every trick in the book, short of just using a shitty pun. Well, maybe that would work. This modern era was a weird time.

“If it’s true that we are what we eat, then I could be you by morning?” he said carefully, frowning when all he got was a snort and an amused grin.

“Nice try,” the young man said, his brown eyes bright behind thick rimmed black glasses. A scruffy, well-trimmed beard lined his mouth and jaw. Tan skin bright against pitch black short hair. Off-white teeth peeked out from his soft lips. “I do love me some shitty pickup lines, what else you got big guy?

Ryan felt his eye twitch and pursed his lips. The bastard didn’t even know he summoned him! What the fuck was up with that? Why was he even there? Sighing he rubbed a large, pale hand against his strong jaw. Faint, blond stubble scratch the pads of his hand.

“Are you from Louisiana, because I’m drowning in your eyes?” Ryan said, grinning bright white teeth when the man snorted and held his stomach as he laughed. His long thin fingers curled into the soft fabric of a light purple hoodie. Comfortable jeans hung from his hips leading to worn checkered vans.

“That’s fucking horrible, man,” the man laughed, smiling up at Ryan between his fingers.

Ryan smirked back and leaned across the table. He instantly frowned when absolutely no scent, feeling, or idea of sex lingered on the man. Great, now he was really out of ideas. Anything weirder and the guy would flee from him, any softer and he would be having an honest to god conversation.

“Alright, what the hell,” Ryan growled as the man calmed, tapping his fingers against the bar, “Why did you summon me?”

The man’s brows furrowed as he frowned. His eyes narrowed at Ryan before darting around the bar. The place was relatively packed, Ryan had originally assumed that the crowds had drawn him in. There were at least five people at every table; the bar running the length of one wall was absolutely packed. They were crammed in the corner, the man nursing a glass of water while sitting on the bar stool, Ryan leaning against the bar next to him.

“Summon you?” the man said slowly, eyes snapping back to Ryan, “I didn’t do that.”

“Well someone had to,” Ryan snapped, folding his arms. Ryan had been drawn to the man the instant he saw him, the same pull a summons would have. On instinct he had just started flirting with him.

The man pursed his lips and sighed. “Gavin must have- that fucker,” he mumbled to himself, scanning the bar again.

Ryan scowled and studied the man. He could feel the magic bundled up just underneath the man’s skin. There was an enormous amount of raw power just waiting for him to snap his fingers. Not the strongest magic user Ryan had tried to seduce, but definitely not the weakest. Regardless of power, there was no way he should have been able to resist him. He could only appear attractive to him.

“How are you resisting me?” Ryan said, edging closer as someone pressed between him and the person behind him to get to the bar, “It shouldn’t be possible.”

The man frowned, leaning back slightly. “I mean, yeah, you’re hot and shit and apparently a magical whatever, but I’m just not interested,” he said, shrugging slightly.

“Not int-how can you not be interested?” Ryan said, jaw dropping, “I’m an incubus, everyone is interested!”

The man blinked at Ryan for a moment before snorting and laughing. He doubled over, nearly knocking his water over when he let go of the short glass. Ryan’s eyes flashed red as they narrowed, finger nails sharpening and elongating. He took a deep breath as the man calmed, wiping a tear from his eye.

“Dude, I’m asexual, I don’t wanna bone anybody,” the man said, smirking at Ryan, “Incubus or not.”

Ryan froze, fingers and eyes human once again. He blinked slowly at the man, brow furrowing. “Asexual?” he said, the word chunky in his mouth, “What the fuck is that?”

The man sighed, giving Ryan a tired smile. “It means I can’t look at a person and say ‘yeah, I’d fuck that’ I just see a person. I understand aesthetic, which is like, 100% you, by the way,” the man said, looking down at his water and picking the glass up, “I mean, my dick works and shit, sex is just, _gross_. I’m not into it.”

Ryan stared at the man, letting the words sink in instead of bouncing off of him like he almost wanted them too. How could someone not want sex? Well, he only needed the action to eat. No sex, no Ryan. “How, I-that’s,” Ryan scowled as words filled his mouth but only a couple managed to tumble free. The man’s smile was weak and pained, nails tapping the glass. “That’s fascinating.”

The man’s eyes widened as Ryan gave him a sheepish look. “Fascinating?” he said slowly, narrowing his eyes.

“Yeah, I mean. If I didn’t need sex to live, I probably won’t-“ Ryan paused, mouth working over the words dancing on the tip of his tongue. They were all so close to what he wanted but none sounded right. “I probably wouldn’t fuck anything, to be honest.”

The man blinked at Ryan, leaning back and bumping into someone who managed to slip between him and the wall. “Seriously?” he said, letting his glass go to push his glasses further up his nose.

Ryan’s eyes glazed over, brow furrowing. Eventually he nodded, focusing on the man again. “I think so?”

The man stared at Ray for a moment longer before grinning. “Well, let’s talk about it then,” he said with a pause, giving Ryan a pointed look.

Ryan stared at him blankly for a moment before his shoulder’s jumped. “Oh, I’m Ryan,” he said nearly punching the man in the shoulder trying to offer his hands. Humans shook hands when they met, right? Not genitals? Probably.

The man snickered, taking Ryan’s hand in a firm shake. “I’m Ray, normal interactions aren’t your thing, are they?” he said, letting Ryan’s hand go.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had an actual conversation with a human,” Ryan said, stuffing his hand in the brown jacket he was wearing. He hadn’t really questioned Ray’s tastes when he walked up to him. He had been dressed much worse before. He didn’t really mind the casual comfy look of a soft t-shirt and baggy jeans.

“Well, here’s to your first,” Ray said, raising his glass slightly with a shit eating grin.

Ryan snorted and shook his head, leaning against the bar and closer to Ray. “Well, not like I can go anywhere else now.”

Ray frowned, letting his glass clink against the bar. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I can’t leave your side until the summons is complete,” Ryan said, snapping his fingers. The bartender’s head instantly snapped over to him and he walked over.

“And that’s done, how?” Ray said, tilting his head to the side.

“By having sex,” Ryan said as he made eye contact with the tender. The man instantly poured him a glass of diet coke and set the glass in front of him.

“Oh,” Ray said, frowning as Ryan took a swing of the soda, “I don’t want to, ever.”

“And I’m not into forcing you, so I guess it's best that we at least get along,” Ryan said, giving Ray an awkward smile.

Ray stared at him for a moment, lips slowly stretching into a soft smile. “I guess so,” he said, glancing down at his own glass, “So, uh. What should we talk about then?”

“Can you explain this whole asexual thing?” Ryan said, shifting from foot to foot.

“Sure thing,” Ray said, sitting up a bit straighter and smiling at Ryan.

Ryan found himself lost in the way Ray talked. He chased after every word that dropped from his lips, eyes tracing every hand gesture and curve of his face. His laughter rung in his ears, smile burned in his mind. No prey had ever captivated him, never. Yet now, here sat this man with his shitty jokes and cute actions. With his bright words and witty remarks.

He honestly didn’t know what to do with himself, how to act or speak. Ray was always patient, snickering when he flubbed his words but otherwise making no comment on them. Their foreheads were nearly pressed together as the club got more packed and their ears strained to hear every word.

That was when a tall, gangly man that squawked like a bird and had a nose like one slammed between them, arms awkwardly wrapping around Ray. “Gavin!” Ray said, spitting out wild dirty blond strands that slipped into his mouth, “Let go!”

“But X-Ray!” Gavin whined, legs wobbling under him, “No one wants to take me home!”

“Don’t care, Vav,” Ray sighed, struggling to keep a hold on Gavin as he wiggled and swayed around, “But if you don’t let go you’ll knock us both over.”

Gavin pouted up at Ray, nuzzling his nose into his cheek. “X-Raaaaaaaaaaay,” he said, voice raising a few octaves.

Ryan chuckled quietly as Ray groaned and rolled his eyes. He slipped off of his stool and slung Gavin’s arm around his shoulder. “Sorry, Ryan,” he said, wobbling when Gavin’s leg gave out and he nearly brought them to the ground.

“It’s alright,” Ryan said, hesitantly reach out, “Need a hand?”

Ray sighed and smiled sheepishly at Ryan. “Could you?” he said, trying to get Gavin’s foot under him again.

Nodding, Ryan hooked Gavin’s other arm around his shoulder and together they managed to squeeze through the club and out the front doors. “I don’t suppose you could teleport us or something?” Ray said, struggling under Gavin’s dead weight. He was already asleep, head hanging from his neck as he dangled between them.

“Not all three of us, no,” Ryan grunted, hefting Gavin’s arm further up his shoulder.

Ray groaned and started to trudge forward. Gavin was heavy, but he was at least easier to deal with when he was asleep and not actively making their lives harder. They stumbled into Ray’s apartment and nearly dropped Gavin. Ryan wasn’t having any problems, but Gavin was sweaty. Ray was pink faced and panting.

“Drop him on the couch,” Ray gasped, shuffling forward, “Heavy bastard.”

Ryan chuckled and helped drop Gavin face first onto the black couch. Ray dropped into a ratty old leather arm chair and gave Ryan instructions on how to position Gavin and where his spare blankets were.

Once Gavin was settled with a bucket beside the couch, Ryan turned toward Ray and smiled at the human gently nodding off. Chuckling quietly, he walked over and shook his shoulder. Ray’s head snapped up and he blinked tiredly at Ryan, loose smile on his face.

Ryan felt a weird pounding in his chest as he herded Ray to bed and watched him snuggle into his pillow, mouth hanging open and breathing slowly. He placed his hand over his left breast and felt the beat vibrate through his body. He didn’t know he even had a heart.

Slipping from the room, he glanced at Gavin snoring on the couch and sighed. He felt the tension pour from his back as he let his magic go. Smooth, handsome horns jutted out from his head as his blue eyes stained red. His nails grew longer as a thin, cat like tail unfurled from just above his ass.

Sighing and stretching, his feet left the ground and he laid back in the air. Shifting slightly, he floated over to the nearest corner and turned his back to the room. Nothing was more comfortable to sleep on than air.

Morning found him to be the only one awake and hungry. Frowning as he rolled over in the air and his stomach gurgled angrily. He needed to eat, he hadn’t for quite some time. There was nothing in the rules about having sex with other people while under a summons, just that he needed to have sex with the person who had summoned him or whom he had been summoned for.

Regardless, if he didn’t eat, he would become a walking erection who would stick their dick in the first thing that moved. Slipping from the air and landing softly on his feet, his horns and tail disappeared as his eyes returned to a more natural blue.

Gavin hadn’t moved much in his sleep although his brow was furrowed. A quick peak into Ray’s room showed the young man sprawled out on his bed, covers flung away as his hand and foot dangled off the edge of the bed.

Smiling to himself, Ryan slipped from the apartment and searched for some prey. He hoped he would be back before either Ray or Gavin woke up.

Ray groaned as the sound of Gavin vomiting woke him up. He rolled over in his bed, folding his pillow over his ears. Squeezing his eyes shut and scowling, he tried to block the sound out.

He relaxed when Gavin stopped only to groan louder when he started up again. “God fucking damnit,” he hissed as he let go of his pillow and forced himself to sit up, “I hate it when he drinks this much.”

Wobbling to his feet, he shuffled over to his bathroom, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He vaguely listened to Gavin wretch a few times before finally quieting. He snagged a bottle of Advil from his medicine cabinet and padded into the kitchen, still squinting against the daylight.

Gavin swayed on the couch, face tinged green. He was hugging the bucket with his knees, pushing his hair out of his face with his hands. Ray sighed and shook his head as he went into his kitchen and grabbed the cracker box and a glass of water.

“Here, Gavin,” Ray said, holding the box out to Gavin as he set the water glass down next to the pain killers.

“Thanks, X-Ray,” Gavin said, smiling weakly as he took the box.

Ray nodded as he dropped into his arm chair. He watched Gavin nibble on the crackers, ignoring the stench of vomit. A vague thought nagged at him and his eyes glazed over.

“Ryan!” Ray eventually gasped after Gavin had down some water and the pill, “Where the fuck is he?”

Gavin squawked and nearly gagged, glaring at Ray as he set the box and glass aside. “Who?” he croaked, making a face at the bucket before setting the red pail on the ground.

“Ryan, that incubus you summoned for me,” Ray said as he stood, glancing around the room.

Gavin’s brow furrowed as he watched Ray peak into his bathroom and into the kitchen. “I didn’t summon an incubus,” he said, leaning back against the couch.

“Of course you did, I wouldn’t do that,” Ray said, frowning when he didn’t find Ryan in his hall closet, “Or did Michael do it?”

“We didn’t summon anything,” Gavin huffed, rubbing his forehead. His hands were shaking but at least his stomach had finally settled.

Ray paused and frowned at his bedroom door. He slowly turned and narrowed his eyes at Gavin. “Well, if you two didn’t summon him, and I didn’t, why the fuck did he show up?”

“I don’t know,” Gavin shrugged, closing his eyes and tilting his head back, “There’s nobody here either. Maybe you were just talking to some nob that managed to get you to drink something.”

“I didn’t drink anything,” Ray snorted, shuffling back over to the kitchen, “He was real. And kind of nice.”

“Whatever you say, X-Ray,” Gavin sighed, throwing his arm over his eyes.

Ray rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen. He opened his cupboards until he found his lineup of cereal. He eyed the different boxes, but barely read any of the titles. Didn’t Ryan need to have sex with him before he left? Yet, if Gavin and Michael hadn’t summoned him, was there any reason for him to stay at all?

Ray’s eyes glazed over as he frowned. Damn, he was kind of happy to have met Ryan. He was fucking hilarious and nice for an incubus. Sighing, he tried to focus on his cereal again when his front door opened and he jumped.

His head snapped to his kitchen door, hand raising and bursting into bright red flames. His front door closed and he tensed, blinking at Ryan who gave him a sheepish smile, rubbing his neck.

“Sorry,” Ryan said softly, pulling at the hem of his jacket and shuffling his feet, “I hoped I would be back before you got up.”

Ray blinked slowly, lowering his arm and extinguishing the flames. “You scared the shit out of me,” he breathed, smiling slightly, “Where the hell did you go?”

Ryan opened his mouth then froze. A small hiss of a breath left him before he closed his mouth again and looked at the floor, lips pressed into a thin line. “I uh-I needed to- I had to eat,” he stumbled out, teeth grinding together.

Ray frowned and hesitantly walked over. “You okay?” he said slowly, leaning to try and catch Ryan’s eyes.

“Yeah, I-I donno,” Ryan said, shoulders slumping as he ran his hand through his hair. He still artfully avoided looking at Ray. “I just feel, awful.”

Frown deepening, Ray reached out and grabbed Ryan’s hand, smiling at him when his eyes snapped to his. “It’s okay, you’ve gotta eat and as long as the other person is willing, you’re fine.”

Ryan blinked at Ray before smiling softly. He squeezed his hand and nodded. Before either could speak again, Gavin groaned from the living room, startling them both. “X-Ray! Who the bloody hell are you talking to?”

Ray sighed and shook his head, letting Ryan’s hand go and turning back toward the cereal cupboard. “Just Ryan, Vav. I told you he was real.”

Ryan’s hand hovered in the air, blue eyes locked on the space Ray had been. Hesitantly lowering his arm, he vaguely listened to Ray and Gavin argue, awkwardly heading into the living room.

Gavin still had his arm thrown over his eyes as Ryan hesitantly sat in the arm chair. He peaked around his arm and gasped, flailing his arms as he tried to squish himself into the corner of the couch.

“Who are you?!” Gavin said, eyes wide as they trailed over Ryan’s face then his chest.

Ryan frowned and shifted uncomfortably. “I’m Ryan?” he said slowly, shrinking away when Gavin suddenly sat up, eyes narrowed.

Gavin suddenly smiled, eyes bright and face significantly less green. “You’re really an incubus! This is top!”

“Gavin, stop using your weird words,” Ray mumbled as he shuffled into the room with a bowl in hand and a spoon hanging from his mouth. Ryan smiled slightly at him as he walked over and sat on the arm of the chair. “I told you who Ryan was.”

“I didn’t think an actual incubus would just walk up to you!” Gavin said, smiling brightly. His eyes kept snapping back over to Ryan, making his skin crawl.

Ryan frowned as Ray scowled around the spoon still dangling from his lips. “He didn’t just- look. If you didn’t summon him, Michael must have.”

“No way! Michael’s a toss, he can’t summon a mushroom!” Gavin said, shifting further down the couch, “Sides, doesn’t matter how he found you, he can finally fix you!”

Ryan’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped as Ray flinched and glared at Gavin. “I’m not fucking broken,” he snarled, yanking the spoon out of his mouth and jabbing the round part at Gavin, “I just don’t want to have sex.”

“Everyone wants to have sex,” Gavin groaned, pointing to Ryan, “And he has to! And if you accidentally summoned him that means you have to have sex!”

“Uh, no. It doesn’t,” Ryan said making Gavin freeze and Ray frown down at him, “I’m not exactly interested in sex either, especially if Ray doesn’t want to.”

Gavin’s jaw dropped as Ray blinked at him, smiling slowly. “Well, there. I have a cool new friend and you still can’t get a date, suck it Vav!” Ray said, smirking at Gavin.

“But, but, you have to eat!” Gavin said as he frowned at Ryan, “And you’re too hot not to be an incubus!”

“Just because I have to have sex to live doesn’t mean I like doing it,” Ryan huffed, folding his arms. As Gavin opened and closed his mouth, eyes darting around for words that weren’t there, Ryan sneaked an approval seeking glance at Ray.

Ray smiled and nodded, patting Ryan’s head before actually eating his cereal before everything turned into a soggy mess.

Gavin frowned at them as Ryan perked up and leaned closer to Ray, trying to peek into his bowl. “What is that?” Ryan said, frowning at the little floating pieces of grain.

“Cereal,” Ray said around a mouth full.

Ryan blinked at the strange shapes before raising an eyebrow. “Aren’t those marshmallows?”

“Can’t have cereal without marshmallows,” Ray said with a nod.

“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of eating something healthy?” Ryan said, looking up at Ray with a smile.

Ray pursed his lips and shrugged. “Yeah probably.”

As Ryan laughed and Ray smiled, Gavin looked between them with narrowed eyes. He had to tell Michael about this.

By the Gavin left, he had pestered the both of them about sex enough times that they had just started ignoring him altogether in favor of Ray showing Ryan the joys of video games.

Ray smiled as Ryan bit his lip in concentration as he played. “They’ve gotten so much better,” Ryan mumbled, smirking as he shot another player in the head.

“When was the last time you were on Earth?” Ray said, looking back over at the screen to make sure he hadn’t died.

“No idea, honestly,” Ryan said, pouting slightly as he was killed. He ran his hand through his hair as he waited to respawn. “Some time ago, though.”

Ray nodded slowly and watched Ryan out of the corner of his eye. He remembered from a multitude of magical texts, that incubus weren’t really the most trustworthy creatures. Then again, he had never truly met one before and at the same time he was taking his magic courses, he took a sociology course and that _really_ changed how he saw the world.

Now, having met Ryan, he was fairly certain that he could trust him to save his life. Also, he was god damn adorable and that was truly unfair.

“Is it possible,” Ray said slowly after Ryan had respawned, “That no one summoned you?”

Ryan paused, letting his character die again. Frowning he looked at Ray and pursed his lips. “Perhaps? I have heard of other demons becoming attached to only one human.”

“So, that’s what happened?” Ray said looking up at Ryan as the round ended.

“Perhaps?” Ryan said, shrugging, “I don’t see any other way if you nor your friends summoned me.”

Ray’s eyes glassed over for a second before he nodded and looked back over at the TV. He blinked at the title screen for a moment before smiling. “Who the hell says nor anymore?”

Ryan snorted and rolled his eyes. Ray had been getting on him for the last hour for his words. “I do, and it’s proper grammar.”    

“Not in this century,” Ray snickered, shaking his head and bumping their shoulders together.

Ryan huffed and smiled down at Ray. He looked back over at the TV and focused on the next game.

Ryan sat completely still later that night, Ray leaning his head against his shoulder. The young man was snoring softly, controller dangling from his fingers as the menu screen light up the apartment.

He closed his eyes and sighed gently then looked down at the soft black hair brushing his jaw. Smiling softly he leaned back slightly and moved Ray to lay down with his head in his lap. Carding his fingers through his hair, he watched Ray sleep, snuggling into his legs.

Perhaps he could leave, perhaps he wasn’t summoned but Ray just drew him in. Regardless, he couldn’t think of anywhere else he’d rather be than right there, watching over Ray’s sleep.

Tilting his head back and letting his human guise drop, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. He woke curled up on the couch, tail gently tapping the cushion.

Blinking blood red eyes, he sat up slowly and sniffed the air. There was thuds and curses from the kitchen and he smiled. Floating from the couch, he ghosted into the kitchen and smiled at Ray’s back. He had changed out of yesterday’s clothes and into comfortable sweat pants and an oversized hoodie.

“Need a hand?” Ryan said, floating closer, “I think I remember how to cook.”

“Nah, I’ve got it,” Ray said, turning to look at Ryan and freezing, “Holy shit,” he breathed, holding his hand over his heart.

“What’s wrong?” Ryan said, frowning as Ray pushed out a laugh, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, your eyes just startled me,” Ray said as he turned back to the stove, a pan in hand.

Ryan’s brow furrowed as he peaked over Ray’s shoulder, watching him turn the burner on and set the pan down. “My eyes?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think they would be red,” Ray said as he shuffled over to a tall cupboard and opened the squeaking door, “They’re pretty though.”

Ryan blinked at Ray slowly and smiled. “Well, I’m supposed to look appealing to you no matter the form I take,” he said, snickering when Ray stood on his toes to try and grab a box on the top shelf.

“So I like dad-bod blond haired dorks with either red or blue eyes?” Ray said, smiling when Ryan snorted, “Good to know.”

Ryan rolled his eyes and floated a bit higher, grabbing the box. He smirked when Ray pouted at him, snatching the box from his hands. “Okay smart ass, can you get everything else for me?”

Ryan hadn’t had pancakes made with a mix before and was pleasantly surprised to find that they tasted almost exactly the same as ones made from scratch. Ray shook his head as Ryan devoured as many pancakes he could get away with eating.

Over the week, their lives revolved mostly around each other. Ryan trailed after Ray everywhere. Michael tried to punch him the first time he saw him and Gavin insisted on knowing if they had sex. Ray spent most of the time getting Ryan settled into the apartment including clothes he didn’t have to manifest himself.

Ryan found the modern era fascinating, entering everything with wide, awe filled eyes. Ray got used to his questions and bright smiles so when Ryan wondered into the kitchen one morning with a dead look in his ruby eyes, he wasn’t sure how to approach an upset demon.

“Rye?” Ray said softly as Ryan stared at the Diet Coke can in his hand, “You okay?”

Ryan blinked up at Ray and sighed. In a blink, his horn and tail were gone, eyes blue once again. “I have to feed today,” he said as he cracked the can open.

Ray frowned and leaned against the counter next to Ryan. “Well, you have to do it,” he said, hesitantly hooking his pinky with Ryan’s.

Ryan tensed then relaxed, smiling around the can. “I know,” he sighed before taking a drink.

Once the can was drained, Ryan slipped from the apartment, Ray frowning after him. As the front door clicked closed, he wondered into what used to be a spare bedroom. The room opened up to Ray’s magical workshop. He was excellent at potions and had a massive library of spell books.

He only got through one bookcase by the time Ryan returned. He looked exhausted, nose wrinkled as he breathed through his mouth, as if he was trying to get rid of a bad taste in his mouth.

Ray frowned from where he was peeking out of his work room. Pursing his lips, he slipped into the living room and grabbed Ryan’s hand.

Ryan jumped then smiled sheepishly at Ray, horn and tail appeared a moment later. “I’ve got an idea,” Ray said as he tugged Ryan’s arm.

“Oh?” Ryan said, snickering when Ray rolled his eyes.

“Shut up, asshole,” Ray snorted as he pushed Ryan to sit on the couch.

Ryan opened his mouth with a no doubt snarky reply, but the words died on his tongue as Ray dropped into his lap and snuggled his head into his shoulder.

“Uh. Ray?” Ryan croaked, arms hovering awkwardly around Ray.

Ray chuckled and leaned back. “It’s just cuddling Ryan, it might sustain you some,” he said, leaning back down.

Frowning, Ryan hesitantly wrapped his arms around Ray’s waist and tried to relax. Ray was warm in his arms, his head fit perfectly in the crook of his neck. His legs were sprawled out in front of him, his side pressed against Ryan’s front. Smiling slowly, Ryan rested his cheek on top of Ray’s head.

“I don’t think this will sustain me, but it’s nice,” Ryan said softly, closing his eyes. He could feel Ray’s magic and blood pulse through his body. Could Ray hear his pounding heart?

“Well damn,” Ray huffed, shifting slightly to be closer, “I’m not moving though.”

“Works for me,” Ryan said, holding Ray tighter.

Cuddling might not work, but they were constantly tangled comfortably with each other. Ray continued to search his shelves until he found an old spell book his mentor gave him when he graduated. He cracked the book's spine as he opened up to the table of contents. Skimming the chapter titles, his eyes zeroed in on a chapter about Incubus and Succubus and alternative sources of nutrients.

Ray’s eyes widened as he rushed to get to the right page. He grinned as he read over the first paragraph, wondering over to his work bench. “I love it when magic is convenient,” he mumbled as he sat on his stool and started reading.

Ryan entered the apartment after feeding with a faint headache and shivers fluttering under his skin. He sighed as he entered the living room, tensing when he heard Ray racing across the apartment and shove a bottle of blue sludge into his face.

“Ray?” Ryan said, taking the bottle and frowning down at the slow moving goop, “What is this?”

“Drink it,” Ray said, bouncing on his toes and grinning up at Ryan, “It’ll feed you.”

“But I just-“ Ryan said, laughing when Ray pouted and lightly punched his shoulder, “What? I did just eat.”

“Just do it!” Ray huffed, folding his arms and smiling.

“Okay, okay,” Ryan chuckled, swirling the bottle slightly. He wrinkled his nose as the sludge flopped around awkwardly. Taking a deep breath, he tipped his head back and waited for the blue goop to slide down the bottle and into his mouth.

A familiar shock bolted down his spine as he swallowed the sweet sludge. He lowered the bottle with wide eyes, looking between the bottle and Ray. “Well?” Ray said, leaning closer.

“I-what is this?” Ryan said before hesitantly taking another drink.

“I had this book about demons and one of the chapters had a potion for alternative sustenance for incubus!” Ray said, chuckling as Ryan downed the rest of the bottle, “I’m guessing it works?”

“It’s fucking delicious,” Ryan breathed, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand and almost hugging the bottle to his chest.

“Now you don’t have to have sex!” Ray said, puffing his chest up, hands on his hips.

Ryan laughed and set the bottle on the side table. He instantly scooped Ray up into his arms and held him tightly. He laughed as Ray did, thin fingers carding through his hair as his magic melted away.

“Thank you,” Ryan breathed, pressing his nose into Ray’s collar bone.

Ray chuckled then yelped as Ryan dropped onto the couch, holding Ray tighter. “We’re cuddling now,” Ryan sighed happily.

Ray snorted and laughed, pushing up slightly to press a soft kiss to Ryan’s lips. “Works for me,” he said as Ryan stared at him with wide eyes.

Ryan blinked slowly before smiling brilliantly. Cupping Ray’s cheek, he kissed him again and felt warmth burn in his chest.

 


	25. Lamps and Genies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan is a down on his luck archaeologist with a terrible boss that is trying to become famous for all his hard work. The problem is he can't find anything until he stumbled upon an old magic lamp that holds Ray a powerful genie that wishes to be free to make his own decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
> 
> Read more of my stuff at vidparson.tumblr.com

            He had one more shot, one more chance, one more dig. There _had_ to be something here. The Arabic government was paying him a lot of money to find something, anything. Even if he found the smallest chip of a once great piece of pottery, he would he happy. Anything to keep his job.

            He stood over the deep hole they had dug into the ground and forced a shaky smile. Nothing but dirt. Pounds upon hours of dirt. No pot shards, no bones, not even any grains, old seeds, nothing. There was nothing there, but even the workers diligently brushing away layer after layer had the heart to tell him something he already knew.

            James Ryan Haywood was once a fairly famous archeologist. He discovered long lost tombs in Egypt, uncovered hundreds of books from the library at Timbuktu. His theories for the burning of the Library of Alexandria were world renowned and, depending on who was asked, considered to be true. He had twenty book titles under his name, not all as successful as others, but twenty books was nothing to sneeze at.

            Now he was struggling to get by with what small, measly finds and government funding. He honestly wasn’t sure what got him to this point, he had been doing so well. He had thought one bad dig in Gezer wouldn’t put that much of a dent in how people saw him, but apparently the world was counting on him to be always right.

            Now he was hoping the Arabic government had more land for him to dig in after this failure. Surely, they would want someone with such a famous name to find something, eventually, somewhere else. He hoped.

            Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose and turned away from his current dig. He shouldn’t even be blamed for this failure! He didn’t choose this spot, the government had. He just did what he was told hoping he would get paid. Honestly, he should have been looking somewhere on the other side of the damn country for anything of value, but that wasn’t up to him.

            Regardless, he would be blamed. He would be fired. He would be the one fighting to get a new job. He would be the one going around begging museums to at least give him a chance. Taking another deep breath, he walked over to the basecamp and dropped onto the creaky cot he had been given.

            He dropped his head into his hands and ran his fingers through greasy blond strands. He was covered in a thick layer of dirt and his joints ached from hours spent kneeling in the dirt, desperately digging when everyone else was sleeping. Not like he could sleep with the constant creaking of cots anyway.

            Holding his head, he closed his eyes and considered his options. Abandon the dig while he was still technically ahead or keep going on empty hopes of finding anything to bring him back into the spotlight he barely wanted anymore.

            Or get a desk job. He could do a desk job easily, he was a good writer, had enough common sense to do some good work. He’d be bored out of his mind, but at least he’d make a living.

            “Sir!” A worker burst into the large tent, breathing hard and grinning wildly. “We found something.”

            Ryan was on his feet in a heartbeat, racing after the worker. People were grinning and smiling, one of the woman holding up a shining silver lamp. Ryan’s eyes went wide and he had to keep himself from just jumping straight into the pit.

            Nearly tripping down the stairs twice, he raced over to the woman and took the lamp. The clay was cool against his skin, the dirt falling away easily. The metal was surprisingly shiny, not rusted or decayed like other lamps.

            Ryan studied the lamp closely, chest pulling into a tight ball. What if someone within the last few years had buried the lamp there? The paint was so shiny and perfect. The lamp was heavy as though the oil was still inside but nothing came out, not even dirt, when he tilted the nose down.

            The silver lamp was beautiful. The entire thing had to be about six inches in length from the tip of the nozzle to the elegant handle. Where the wick would have laid was a deep well leading into the flat base of the lamp. The pouring hole was tall, about an inch from the base. The handle curved and twisted into a tight spiral. A simple, curling pattern was pressed into the base, painted black to contrast the shiny silver paint.

            He had never seen an eleventh century lamp like that before. Made out of clay and in the same style, sure, but never one painted with a metallic paint and in such good condition. He hardly believed the damn thing came out of the dirt in the first place.

            “Where did you find this?” Ryan said carefully, looking over the lamp at the woman. She was still smiling so proudly at him, happily pointing to a small corner of the pit.

            He walked over slowly, frowning at the small hole the lamp must have come from. There were little chips of the metallic paint in the hole. Were there multiple layers of paint? Why would they have done something like that?

            Looking back at the lamp, he gently turned the clay in his hands again, squinting to see if he could see where the paint chips belonged. “I-I’ll need to do some research,” he said, turning around and smiling tiredly at his crew, “But wonderful job everyone.”

            Cheers were thrown up around him, but Ryan stayed focused on the lamp. The damn thing might not be the grand discovery he was hoping for, and could possibly be his workers taking pity on him. Either way, he could possibly weasel some more dig time for them, or a better location.

            Sighing, he went back to the main tent and sat on his cot once again. His books were piled up beside him but he just stared at the lamp. He had to report this to his overseer after he figured out if the damn thing was even worth anything. Instead, he just stared at the lamp, itching to feel the grooves of the carvings, hoping they weren’t made by a machine.

            As much as he hadn’t seen a lamp painted like this within history or other digs, he had never seen one in a shop before either. At least the lamp was clay like others from the time. All of the tourist traps sold metal or plastic. Biting his lip, he ran his fingers over the lamp, brushing off imaginary dust and dirt.

            His eyes went wide when the lamp started to heat then burn his skin as the metallic paint started to glow. He dropped the lamp with a clatter, hissing as his hands turned red and started to blister.

            The lamp rattled against the plywood, the silver glistening red and making the wood smoke. He tried to scramble away without using his burning hands, but before he could get very far, a plume of red smoke burst from the nozzle and filled the empty tent.

            Ryan gasped and held his breath as a sudden wave of smoke pushed over him. He threw his arms up as the warm smoke flowed over him, closing his eyes. He jumped when he heard a series of coughs and the heavy smoke poured off of him.

            Cracking his eyes open, he blinked at a young man standing over the lamp, the smoke gone. He was wearing a slimming red robe with a white sash around his waist. Thick gold bands clung tightly to his wrists. He was waving the smoke clinging to his clothes away, his other hand balled up in front of his mouth as he coughed.

            Ryan’s brow furrowed and his hands were no longer burning as he stood slowly. “What the hell?” he mumbled, glancing down at his hands before looking back at the young man. The blistering was gone and his skin was returning to a tanned pink.

            “Too much smoke, fuck,” the man coughed, straightening out his robes, “First entrance in centuries and I fuck it up.”

            “Who are you?” Ryan said, taking a hesitant step toward the man, “Where the hell did you come from?”

            The man looked up and raised an eyebrow at Ryan. He looked him up and down before folding his arms. “I am the genie of the lamp, you freed me and as a thank you I shall grant you three wishes.”

            Ryan blinked at the man for a moment before sighing, dropping his head into his hands. He groaned as he tugged on his hairs slightly. So the workers were shitting with him, great. Now he didn’t have their respect.

            “Uh, dude?” the man said, shuffling closer, “You okay there?”

            Ryan sighed and looked up at the young man’s soft brown eyes. He had a short, shaggy beard and messy, soft black hair. He didn’t even try to sound like someone from the eleventh century. “How much did they pay you?” he said, letting his arms drop to his sides.

            “What? Who?” the man said, tilting his head to the side.

            “The workers, how much did they pay you? Or was it Edgar?” Ryan said, scowling at the man.

            “Uh, no one paid me? I literally came from the lamp,” the man said, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes at Ryan, “I’m actually a genie.”

            “Yeah, right,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes, “This is all funny and shit, but seriously, it’s not.”

            “What the fuck are you talking about?” the man snapped, eyes seeming to flash bright red.

            “You don’t even talk like someone from the eleventh century!” Ryan said, throwing his arms up and turning away. The lamp shined out of the corner of his eye and he stooped to snap the lamp up.

            “That’s because I’m fucking magic!” the man growled, “The instant I came out, I knew shit, that’s how fantastical cosmic power works!”

            Ryan scowled and glared at the lamp. “Where the hell did they get this, anyway?” he said, turning toward Ray.

            “The ground? That fucker buried it!” the man snapped, ripping the lamp from Ryan’s hand and hugging the clay to his chest.

            Ryan frowned and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right,” he sighed and turned away, running his hand through his hair, “I can’t tell how mad I should even be at this point.”

            The man scowled and grabbed Ryan’s arm. “I’ll prove myself to you,” he said letting Ryan’s arm go to snap his fingers. Ryan gasped when there was a sudden white flash and when his vision cleared, he froze. They were on top of the government building. His eyes widened as he looked over the small city they were stationed. Their tent rose up high above the other buildings. He stumbled back, the man catching his arm.

            “How?” Ryan breathed, looking at Ray with wide eyes.

            “Fantastic cosmic power,” the man said, smirking at Ryan. He let Ryan’s arm go again and snapped his fingers. With another bright flash, they were back in the tent as if they had never left.

            Ryan stumbled until the back of his knees hit his cot and he fell to his ass, the cot creaking under him. “What the fuck just happened?” he said, looking up at the man.

            “The name’s-“ the man paused, pursing his lips and eyes glazing over for a moment, “Just call me Ray, I like that name.”

            Ryan opened his mouth then closed it again a few times before flopping down on to the bed. He groaned and closed his eyes. “What the fuck,” he sighed.

            Ray chuckled and sat on the edge of the cot, crossing his legs. “Now do you believe me?”

            Ryan snorted and cracked an eye open to look at the young man. “Okay, say you’re a genie, how the fuck did you get in the lamp?”

            Ray tensed then sighed, shoulders drooping. “Well, there was a guild of us magic users. The details are unimportant now, but we were all blamed for the tragedies and problems of the time. Accused of being allies of the enemy. As punishment, we were locked away into lamps to be wielded like weapons at the right moments. When the times changed and they no longer needed the lamps, they buried and hid them away.”

            Ryan frowned and slowly sat up. Ray smiled tiredly at him, running his fingers over the carvings on the lamp. “I’ve been trapped in this damn things for centuries, and you’ve freed me,” he said, turning to look at Ryan, “And to thank you, I will grant you three wishes.”

            Ryan felt his face heat slightly and swallowed thickly. “I-I didn’t know I was helping you, but I’m glad I was able to.”

            Ray smiled softly and nodded. He held the lamp out to him. “Here, take this lamp as a sign of our agreement.”

            Ryan hesitantly reached out and took the lamp. “I-yeah. I can do that,” he said, smiling softly at Ray.

            “So,” Ray said, pushing up to his feet, “What’s your first wish?”

            Ryan frowned as Ray turned and smiled at him. “I-aren’t there rules to these kinds of things?”

            “Nah.” Ray shrugged, rocking on his feet. “There aren’t really. You can wish for anything you want.”

            Ryan blinked slowly at Ray and looked down at the lamp. “You’re, trapped within this lamp?” he asked slowly.

            Ray nodded, frowning slightly when Ryan gently ran his fingers over the metallic paint. “Could you die if you were separated? Do you want to be free?” Ryan said, looking up at Ray.

            Ray leaned back slightly before snorting and laughing lightly. “This isn’t a film or something, my soul has been bound to this lamp. You can’t free me or something.”

            Ryan frowned and Ray snickered. “So that’s the only rule?” he said, holding the lamp tighter.

            Ray opened his mouth then paused, brow furrowing. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said with a shrug.

            Ryan snorted and shook his head. “I honestly don’t know what I could wish for,” he said, glancing at his books. He frowned and then tensed. “Shit.”

            “What?” Ray said, frowning as Ryan got to his feet and started to pace.

            “I need to report the lamp to Edgar, but you’re here and I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Ryan mumbled to himself.

            Ray frowned and tilted his head to the side. “Edgar is your superior, correct? And you need to tell him for the dig.” He paused and then smiled. “Why don’t you wish that the dig was full of artifacts? That’s what you’ve been hoping for, right?”

            Ryan froze and looked at Ray with wide eyes. He slowly reached up and rubbed the back of his head which was tingling slightly. “Don’t do that,” he said slowly.

            “Do what? Be in your head?” Ray said, wincing when Ryan flinched and pulled at his hair, “Ah, sorry. I’ll stop. I’ll ask you questions the human way from now on.”

            Ryan snorted and nodded slightly. “Thank you,” he said before glancing at the tent entrance, “Could you fill the dig?”

            “Of course, with anything that’ll kick start your career again,” Ray said, folding his arms behind him.

            Ryan pressed his lips together and looked down at the lamp. “Okay, do it, that’ll be my first wish.”

            “As you command,” Ray said, raising his hand and snapping his fingers. There was no bright light this time, just silence. Ryan raised an eyebrow at Ray who rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like I’m going to make everything appear suddenly and scare the shit out of everyone. They’ll uncover everything tomorrow.”

            Ryan blinked at Ray slowly before snorting and laughing. “Fair enough,” he said, looking down at the lamp. He scooped up his messenger bag and set the lamp in, throwing the strap over his shoulder.

            Ray smiled and with a puff of red smoke, he was gone, voice faint and muffled from his bag. “I’ll stay here for now.”

            Ryan nodded and slipped out of the tent, a faint smile on his lips.

 

* * *

 

            They found so many artifacts Ryan was beginning to worry they were about to find too many. Burials, complete pots, foundation of houses. There were dump pits, pots, pans, and even a few pieces of decaying meat in a small cave. There was jewelry, small scraps of clothes, and shoes that looked like they had been made yesterday.

            He was in an archaeologist’s dream, running from worker to worker to catalog and organize every artifact. He was going to have to request an expansion of the dig site. Faint laughs followed him everywhere as his messenger bag bounced against his hip. A few workers noticed and looked around for the muffled sound, but could never place where the laugh was coming from.

            By lunch he had given everyone the rest of the day off. They would be pulling artifacts out left and right for days at this rate anyway. Besides, he still needed to organize and package what they had dug up that day.

            “Holy shit,” Ryan breathed as the workers filed out of the site and he stood over their finds, hands on his hips, “Where the fuck do I start?”

            “With the small things?” Ray said, red smoke billowing out of his messenger bag. The smoke gathered and formed a human shape that, with a pop, turned into Ray, the excess smoke bursting from his body before disappearing.

            “But where do I start there?” Ryan said, laughing dazed, “There are so many things.”

            Ray laughed and smiled as Ryan gently scooped up a few golden beads that were similar in style to each other. He trailed after him as he went over to the table they had brought out from the main tent and started trying to arrange the beads from smallest to largest.

            “So your wish is treating you well?” Ray said as he sat on the edge of the table close to Ryan, watching him move the beads around.

            “It’s amazing!” Ryan said, head snapping up to give Ray a bright smile. He tensed and frowned as Ray blushed. “But, where are all of these things coming from? Did you make them up or-?” He looked back down at the beads, rolling one of the smaller ones between his finger and thumb.

            Ray frowned slightly, leaning back and down to try and catch Ryan’s eyes. “All this has always been here,” Ray said, gesturing to the pit, “I just brought it up a few layers so you could find it.”

            Ryan looked up at Ray with wide eyes before launching out of his seat, nearly falling when his foot got caught on the wooden chair. Ray stood, holding his hands out with a worried frown as Ryan raced into the main tent then ran back over, a rolled map in hand.

            As carefully as he could with trembling hands, he pushed the beads aside and unrolled the maps, using the empty crates stacked beside the table to hold the corners of the map down. Inside the more modern map was a much older one that Ryan carefully lifted the set above the modern map.

            “So, you’re saying this massive town we’ve found has always existed here, under miles of dirt?” Ryan said, looking between the maps, fingers finding certain points.

            “Yes?” Ray said, looking over Ryan’s shoulder, “I used to live there.”

            Ryan snorted and laughed breathlessly, hands shaking as he looked between the two maps, fingers pressed over the modern map where the site was. “It’s real?” he gasped, stumbling back slightly from the table.

            “What’s real?” Ray said, gasping when Ryan grabbed his shoulders and hugged him tightly.

            “It’s real!” Ryan laughed, squeezing the life out of Ray before letting go and smiling brilliantly at him.

            “I am so confused,” Ray said, blushing from his cheeks to his ears, “What’s going on?”

            Shaking his head, Ryan let Ray go and turned back to the maps. “This is an old map of a city people thought was a myth,” he said, pointing to the older map, “It was supposed to be where the greatest treasures of the tenth and eleventh century were taken to be kept safe. Even people back then thought it was a myth.”

            Ray’s eyes widened as he looked over the site. “That’s why,” he whispered, scowling slowly.

            Ryan frowned and glanced over at Ray. “What’s why?” he said, hesitantly reaching out and squeezing Ray’s shoulder.

            “I was charged with protecting the city,” Ray said slowly, turning to look at Ryan with a weak smile, “Then, they ordered me to bury it under the Earth, sucked me back into my lamp after years of being free, and buried me.”

            Ryan’s eyes widened as Ray hugged himself around his stomach, looking down at the map. “I had free range of the entire city, could use my magic however I saw fit as long as I did so to protect the place.”

            Ryan frowned and gently hugged Ray again, resting his cheek on top of his head as thin fingers curled into his shirt. “I’m sorry,” he said as he closed his eyes.

            “You freed me,” Ray laughed wetly, pressing his nose into Ryan’s shoulder, “That’s more than I could have asked for.”

            “But you’re still-“ Ryan scowled and leaned back slightly, looking between Ray’s eyes. Ray tilted his head to the side, brows furrowed. “Can I ask for you to stay out of the lamp or does that have to be another wish?”

            Ray’s eyes widened before he laughed, letting Ryan go to rub the unfallen tears from his eyes. “No, you don’t have to waste a wish on that.”         

            Ryan laughed lightly and let go as Ray waved for him to step back. With a snap of his fingers, Ray was encased in smoke again. With another pop, the smoke disappeared, leaving Ray standing without his robes but with a white t-shirt and cargo shorts. Heavy boots were tied tightly to his feet.

            “Perfect,” Ryan said as he ruffled Ray’s hair, “Now you can help me sort through everything.”

            “Oh boy,” Ray snorted before grabbing Ryan’s hand and pressing his palm to his cheek, “Really, thank you,” he said softly before letting Ryan go and turning away.

            Ryan stood stalk still, hand still hovering in the air. A blush raced from his ears to his neck as Ray picked through the artifacts. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, Ryan snapped his head to look at the table and put away the maps.

            By the time they had finished organizing everything, most of the crew had returned and were loitering around the site. A few gave Ray sideways, confused looks but then moved on with their day. The artifacts were organized, but Ryan still had to catalog them in a report.

            Ray, lost in the sea of artifacts, would read each of the tags they had placed on each item for Ryan to jot down at the table. By the time that was finished, the sun had set and most of the crew was asleep.

            Ryan smiled tiredly at his book sized pile of papers. His hands ached from trying to write neatly, eyes heavy with exhaustion. He sagged in his chair, hands in his lap and back pressed against the backrest. Ray carefully leaned his folded arms on Ryan’s shoulders and whistled.

            “That’s a massive amount of papers,” Ray said. The dull ache in Ryan’s back from bending over was slowly edging away.

            “It’ll be a lot easier now,” Ryan sighed, running his hand through his hair, careful not to accidentally catch Ray with his nails, “We’ll tag and catalog as we go from now on, now that we have everything laid out.”

            Ray nodded, resting his chin in Ryan’s blond hair. “Sounds like a good plan, but that’s tomorrow. You should sleep now.”

            Ryan chuckled tiredly and nodded, forcing himself to his wobbling feet. “Hopefully we’ll find that treasure they had secured here,” he said as he wandered over to the tent.

            “Probably, I know they hid it under the city,” Ray said, hands hovering over Ryan’s back and side as he stumbled and lost his balance a few times.

            Ryan nodded, eyes threatening to close on him. Ray chuckled when Ryan gave him a lopsided, tired smile. He made sure to tuck him into his cot before sitting on the edge of the bed, Ryan already asleep the instant his head hit his flat pillow.

            Ray smiled softly, running his fingers through Ryan’s hair. They had talked while they worked. He didn’t think Ryan would. Thought he just wanted someone to help, but he talked to him. He was so sweet and kind, so strange but funny.

            Ryan sighed in his sleep, turning on his side and pressing his face into the pillow. Ray chuckled quietly and pressed a soft kiss to his temple before turning into smoke and slipping back into the lamp.

 

* * *

 

            “Haywood!”

            Ryan flinched and looked over his shoulder, a small broken piece of plywood in hand with a documentation paper resting on the rough wood. Ray was holding the clay lamp a worker had just brought to them with a worried frown. He slowly finished tying the tag to the lamp as a short, large man with piercing green eyes and slimy black hair stomped toward them.

            “Ah, Dr. Bead,” Ryan said, squeezing the board tightly, little bits of wood slipping under his skin, “You got my letter.”

            “You’re damn right I did!” Bead said with a laugh, roughly grabbing Ryan’s shoulders and shaking them, “You’ve finally done it! You’re finally not a failure!”

            Ryan sighed as Ray scowled, handing the lamp over to the worker who dug the artifact up and waved for them to stay where they were. He came to stand beside Ryan with a kind smile.

            “Dr. Haywood, we need to finish that paper,” Ray said carefully, pointing to the board Ryan had a white knuckle grip on.

            “You can handle that, boy. Haywood and I have some business to discuss,” the man said, looking Ray up and down with a smirk. He pried the board from Ryan’s hands, pausing before handing the rough wood over to Ray. “Actually, why don’t you come with us? We might need a witness.”

            Ryan winced as Ray flinched and frowned. The board was passed over to the worker still holding the lamp who looked between the three of them in confusion. “They don’t-“ Ryan started, but the man started pushing him toward one of the smaller tents.

            “They can figure it out!” the man snorted as Ray smiled sheepishly at the worker, “Or take a break!”

            Ryan scowled, but let himself be pushed toward the tent, Ray shouting to the workers to take their lunch break as he trailed after them. The smaller tents were used for supplies and housing the artifacts that they had boxed. This particular tent was full of artifact crates that had yet to be used.

            “What do you want Edgar,” Ryan hissed, turning and folding his arms, “I sent a summons for you four days ago.”

            “Who gives a damn?” Edgar laughed, grinning manically at Ryan as Ray slipped past him and hid practically behind Ryan, “You’ve just made me rich.”

            “You?” Ryan snorted, rolling his eyes and sighing, “Of course, you get the payout for this one.”

            Ray frowned as Edgar laughed and roughly patted Ryan’s shoulder. “Damn right I do,” he snickered, letting Ryan go to pull neatly folded papers from his suit jacket’s inner pocket. His black slacks were covered in dust, dress shoes dull from the dirt. “Now, you have some paperwork to sign.”

            Ryan scowled and held his hand out, the papers being placed in his hand. As Edgar searched his pockets for a pen, Ryan unfolded the papers and started reading the contract. He had signed one before beginning to work, but that piece of paperwork had stated that if Ryan did happen to find anything, the payment would be dealt out later with a different contract.

            Ray read over Ryan’s shoulder, brows furrowing as Ryan’s jaw dropped. “Ah, here we are,” Edgar said as he pulled out a ballpoint pen from his back pocket.

            “Fuck no!” Ryan gasped, paper crumbling under his fingers, “I’m not signing this!”

            “You don’t have much of a choice, Haywood,” Edgar snorted, holding the pen out to him, “You said you would when you signed the last one.”

            “No, I signed an agreement saying we could negotiate the second contract and you can’t fool me out of that, I have a copy,” Ryan snapped, narrowing his eyes at Edgar, “I’m not trading all rights and money over to you. You didn’t do shit!”

            Edgar sighed, pen dangling from his fingers. “Now see, I like you Haywood,” he said slowly as he slipped the pen into his jacket’s pocket before hooking his chubby thumbs on the labels of the suit and pulling them further open. Resting on his hips were two black leather holsters, dark against his blood red shit. The hilts of the guns looked to be made from ivory, shining in the low light.

            Ryan tensed, Ray’s fingers curling into the back of his shirt. “I like you a lot,” Edgar continued, letting the jacket fall, “So, I’m telling you. It’s in your best interest to sign.”

            Ryan swallowed hard and glanced back at Ray who was shaking slightly. “Does this count as a wish?” he whispered softly as he tried to straighten out the contract, raising the packet up so Edgar couldn’t see their lips.

            “I’m afraid so, only small things can be freebees,” Ray hissed, eyes narrowing as if he could still glare at Edgar through the packet.

            “Then do whatever, it’ll be my second wish,” Ryan said, smiling shakily as he heard Ray snap his fingers behind him.

            “Look at the contact,” Ray whispered, squeezing Ryan’s shoulder reassuringly.

            With a curt nod, Ryan looked back at the contract and reread the first paragraph. He grinned at all of the changes, Edgar’s name replaced with his own. “Well? You two done talking?” Edgar sneered as Ryan lowered the paper.

            “Give me the fucking pen,” Ryan sighed, holding his hand out. He tried his hardest not to grin as Edgar gloated.

            “He won’t notice until it’s turned in, I made sure of it,” Ray said nearly too quietly as he signed the line for being the witness.

            Ryan smiled at Ray as Edgar snatched the paper and pen from them with a crooked grin. “Nice doing business with you gentlemen,” he said before turning and leaving the tent.

            Ryan let out a shaky sigh, wrapping Ray up in a tight hug. “Holy fuck,” he breathed, resting his chin on Ray’s shoulder, “That was close.”

            Ray’s face heated up as he hugged Ryan back, a goofy smile on his face. “Can’t have you getting shot now,” he said with a chuckle.

            Ryan snorted and let go. He turned away and wandered out of the tent and back to work, Ray silently trailing after him. When Ryan was tucked in for the night, the entire site silent in the night, Ray stayed awake, biting his lip as he sat on the edge of Ryan’s cot.

            Having phenomenal cosmic powers included the ability to see the future, but only when he wanted to. He could never remember to check in with that little ability before he did something. He glanced down at Ryan and sighed, running his hand through his hair. Edgar wouldn’t know for at least two weeks. He had to convince Ryan to hide him away where the bastard would never be able to find him. Besides, Ryan probably didn’t want to deal with him forever.

            He had the words on the tip of his tongue all night and when he opened his mouth to utter them in the morning, Ryan gave him that bright smile of his and took his hand, pulling him toward the food tent. He was talking a mile a minute about their finds, blue eyes glowing brighter than the sun beating down on their backs.

            Ray’s words curled in on themselves and piled up in his throat as he smiled and listened. He liked Ryan. He liked his smile and his murder jokes. He liked his eyes and his kindness. He liked how he always made sure every single worker was okay, sometimes calling on them by name. He loved how much he loved his work. How much he loved finding things. How he would coo over artifacts as he studied them.

            Throughout the day, he found himself choking on his words every time he tried to bring up Ryan making his last wish and burying his lamp somewhere. He had done what was for the good of others before and that landed him under the ground in a tiny ass lamp for centuries. Now he was free, finally free, with a man who barely thought about making his final wish, who talked to Ray like he was a person.

            He didn’t want to let go of that. He didn’t want to go back in the goddamn lamp. He wanted to be right where he was, beside Ryan as he cataloged artifacts. He wanted that bright smile and hear those murder jokes. He wanted everything Ryan was offering him and perhaps some more. He wanted his freedom.

            He didn’t want Ryan to make his last wish and be buried somewhere even though he knew what was going to happen.

            The least he could do was tell Ryan was about to happen. Maybe he had a better idea. Thus, when day turned to night once again and not a word about the problem had tumbled from his lips, he sat at Ryan’s bed side and gave him good dreams like every other night.

            Smiling as Ryan’s cot creaked as he shifted closer, he closed his eyes and meditated until the sun came up.

            “Ryan?” Ray said softly over their breakfast. Ryan’s head snapped up from his gruel and he smiled at Ray.

            “What is it?” Ryan said, setting his fork down when Ray didn’t smile back. His brows furrowed, but he kept smiling worriedly.

            “We have a problem,” Ray said, poking at the yellow slop they called eggs. He wasn’t sure what they were feeding them actually was. Sure didn’t look like any food he knew.

            Ryan finally frowned, glancing around before leaning over the table. He reached out and took Ray’s hand. “What’s wrong?”

            Ray stared at their hands and smiled slowly. Taking a deep breath, he looked up at Ryan’s face with determination. “Your douche of a boss is going to try and steal my lamp.”

            Ryan’s jaw dropped as his brows furrowed trying to find his words. “Well shit,” he eventually pushed out, squeezing Ray’s hand, “How does he find out?”

            “Probably when the contract goes through and doesn’t work out for him like he wants,” Ray sighed, letting his fork go to hold on tightly to Ryan’s hand, “I know if you make your last wish and bury my lamp, we can avoid it.”

            “No,” Ryan snapped out too loudly. He winced when the others looked at them curiously, ducking his head down. “I’m not doing that to you,” he whispered, smiling sheepishly.

            Ray smiled slowly and leaned in closer, their hair nearly brushing each other. “Thank fuck,” he sighed, squeezing Ryan’s hand back.

            “There’s got to be something else we can do,” Ryan said, pursing his lips. His eye light up and his mouth opened when a rush of murmurs swept up around them.

            “Haywood!” Edgar’s booming voice echoed over the camp as both of their heads snapped up.

            “What? He wasn’t supposed to find out until two weeks from now!” Ray hissed, gripping Ryan’s hand tighter.

            “Shit,” Ryan said, standing and giving Ray a weak, reassuring smile. “Get in your lamp, stay hidden.”

            Ray shook his head rapidly. “What if he tries to shoot you?”

            “Haywood!” Edgar was closer now, the workers scurrying to get out of his way as he stormed over towards them.

            “I’ll be okay,” Ryan said without looking away from Ray, “Go.”

            Ray hesitantly let go of Ryan’s hand and ran for the main tent as Edgar grabbed Ryan by the shoulder. He glanced back at Ryan giving Edgar his best smile, hands up in surrender before pushing himself to run faster.

            Skidding into the main tent, he scooped Ryan’s messenger bag from under his cot and snatched his lamp from inside. Now what? Could he bury himself? Probably not easily. Biting his lip, he hugged the lamp to his chest and turned to rush out of the tent when he heard Edgar’s heavy steps and Ryan’s curses.

            Gasping, he ducked under the cot and made himself invisible. “What the ever loving fuck, Haywood?!” Edgar snarled as he pushed Ryan into the tent, “How the bloody hell did you change the contract on me? Don’t even deny it! I know you did! I wrote the bloody thing myself!”

            Ray scowled as Ryan kept taking fast steps back away from Edgar who was slowly stalking forward. He kept nearly tripping over his own feet. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, I just signed what you gave me.”

            “I didn’t make anything like what I turned in!” Edgar roared, slamming his fist into one of the tents supports. The wooden beam made a terrifying creaking noise before settling, the tent trembling.

            “I don’t know what to tell you then,” Ryan said, back hitting the other support. He folded his arms and shook his head. “You were in sight of the damn contract the entire time.”

            Edgar’s teeth ground together as his hand shot under his tweed jacket and whipped out one of the pistols. Ryan’s jaw clenched and he pushed up against the support as Edgar scowled at him. Ray just managed to silence a gasp against his hand, heart beating hard against the floor. “You did something,” Edgar said slowly, cocking the hammer, “Now tell me what it is before I put a bullet between your eyes.”

            “Really, this isn’t the business to be so angry about,” Ryan mumbled, eyes never leaving the barrel of the gun.

            “Now, Haywood!” Edgar snarled and Ray just acted. He burst out from under the cot, flipping the bedding.

            “Ray!” Ryan gasped as Edgar’s head and gun snapped around. He launched himself at Edgar as Ray snapped his fingers.

            Just as Ryan slammed into Edgar’s arm, both of his guns disappeared. Edgar, stunned still in his shock, was knocked over from the force of Ryan slamming into him. Ryan burst from the ground and scooped Ray up in his arms.

            Ray watched over Ryan’s shoulder with wide eyes as Edgar stumbled to his feet, looking at his empty holsters. He just saw the gears turning in his eyes as Ryan burst past the tent doors and the flaps closed behind them.

            He clung to Ryan’s shoulders as they ran, the lamp pressing hard into his stomach. They finally stopped behind one of the tents furthest from the main tent. “What the hell were you thinking?!” Ryan snapped, still holding Ray in a death grip, “He could have killed you!”

            “He was definitely going to kill you!” Ray snarled, kicking his legs as Ryan set him down. They didn’t let go of each other, matching each other’s glare. “I had to do something!”

            “It would have been fine! He couldn’t have killed me and gotten away with it!” Ryan said, arms tight around Ray’s waist.

            “Yeah, he could have! He has money, right?” Ray said, knuckled white as they curled into his shirt.

            Ryan opened his mouth then snapped his jaw closed again, looking away. Ray could feel him shake, their heart beats beating hard at the same rhythm. Taking a deep breath, he rested his head on Ryan’s shoulder. “You need to make your last wish.”

            “No,” Ryan gritted out between his teeth, “I don’t- you’ll. I don’t want to lose you.” His voice was so soft that Ray felt his heart break just a little bit even as he laughed.

            “Ryan, even if you make the wish and I go back into the lamp, you can always bring me back out again,” Ray said, leaning back to cup Ryan’s cheeks and make him look him in the eyes, “I’m not going anywhere if you don’t want me to.”

            Ryan looked between Ray’s eyes and nodded. “Okay, okay,” he said as he pressed their foreheads together, “I can live with that.”      

            Ray laughed lightly and pulled away, the lamp dropping to the ground between them. Ryan held his arms up in the air for a moment before forcing a smile. “Wish away,” Ray said, folding his arms behind him.

            Ryan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I wish-“ he said before opening his eyes. His eyes zeroed in on Edgar rushing up behind Ray and all of the air was sucked from his lungs as a thick arm wrapped around Ray’s shoulder and a glinting blade pressed against his neck.

            “I should have known!” Edgar cackled as Ray gasped and froze in his hold, the knife pressing into his skin as his stomach dropped into the dirt, “You had a genie up your ass!”

            “No,” Ryan breathed, frozen, the lamp at his feet.

            “Now, I’m sorry,” Edgar purred, pressing his cheek against Ray’s, “Weren’t you about to make a wish? My wishes, I should say.”

            “What?” Ray snapped, trying to tilt his head away from Edgar’s.

            Ryan’s eyes glazed over and Edgar laughed as they searched through the air. “Ohhhh, he’s already figuring it out. I knew they called you a genius Haywood.” Edgar sneered, pressing the knife hard enough not to break skin but make breathing hard.

            “You’re the one who wanted to dig here,” Ryan said slowly as his head snapped up, “You’re the one that brought the map, who funded the dig.”

            “We all know this Haywood,” Edgar sighed, shaking his head as Ray pushed out small puffs of air, “What else?”

            “You knew Ray’s lamp was here,” Ryan said, eyes narrowing. His foot hesitantly pushed toward the lamp. “You wanted me to find him just so you could get his power.”

            “Ah, there it is!” Edgar laughed, turning his head to look at Ray, “And look what you found. You did all my work for me, I should have known when the contract changed that you had the genie in your pocket. Thanks for keeping him warm for me.”

            Ryan scowled as Edgar gave Ray’s cheek a sloppy kiss. “Fucking gross,” Ray hissed, raising his hand slightly to snap.

            “Now I have my ticket to a future of fortune,” Edgar sighed, the hand holding Ray’s shoulders snapping down to grab his hands, “Ah, ah! Don’t want you turning to smoke on me.”

            Ray growled, but stopped wiggling his hands when the knife broke skin and a bead of blood rolled down the knife. “Wait! You kill him, you don’t get anything!” Ryan said, eyes looking between Edgar and the blade in panic.

            “Oh, you’re quite right,” Edgar said with a crooked smirk, “But I also can’t have my wishes if you still have one. I mean, I could always kill him. There were supposed to be more lamps in the city, not just his.”

            Ryan went tense as Ray’s eyes widened. “No. No, no,” Ryan gasped, hands shaking as he looked down at Ray’s lamp.

            “Better make your wish,” Edgar said, pressing the knife just a bit closer as another bead of blood rolled down the blade, “And fast.”

            Ryan opened his mouth then looked up at them. “He needs his hands,” he said softly and Ray closed his eyes tightly.

            “Ah, of course. Genie’s can’t do their spells without snapping,” Edgar sighed, letting Ray’s hands go, “No funny business or I kill him.”

            Ryan nodded, giving Ray a shaky smile when he gave him a pleading look. “I wish,” Ryan said softly, smile slowly turning into a smirk, “For Ray to return to his lamp the instant I finish speaking.”

            Ray smirked as he snapped his fingers faster than he could process Ryan’s words or Edgar could react. In an instant, Ray turned to smoke that burst from Edgar’s arms, blinding him and got sucked up into the lamp at Ryan’s feet. Before the last bit of smoke entered the lamp, Ryan scooped the clay up and ran.

            “Shit!” Edgar growled, waving the red smoke away, eyes wildly searching for them.

            Ryan ran as fast as he could, clutching the lamp as tightly as possible. The rough edges dug into his skin as he burst from the camp and dashed into the city. He dodged around people and carts, stands, and horses. He followed the crowds to the nearest bazar and ducked into the first small alcove he saw.

            Panting and hugging the lamp to his chest, he glanced behind him. He couldn’t see or hear Edgar over the crowds and sighed in relief. Turning back to the lamp, he hesitantly rubbed the side. His shoulders sagged, although, his heart was still beating hard, when red smoke poured from the nozzle.

            “Ryan,” Ray breathed before nearly tackling Ryan in a hug. The lamp dropped with a thud at their feet.

            “Oh thank god,” Ryan sighed, hugging Ray back just as tightly, leaning back against the wall.

            Ray laughed and leaned back, still holding onto Ryan’s shoulders. “I guess I owe you three more wishes,” he said with a tired smile.

            Ryan slowly grinned, looking between Ray’s eyes. “Mind if I make one now?” he said, chuckling when Ray pouted at him, “It’s a good one, I swear.”

            “Fine,” Ray snorted, squeezing Ryan’s shoulders, “Shoot.”

            “I wish that the rule keeping you tied to the lamp didn’t exist,” Ryan said, smiling smugly when Ray opened his mouth to argue before stopping himself, “I’m fairly certain that _is_ something I can do.”

            Ray stared at Ryan for a long moment before laugh. “You fucker,” he said, raising his hand and snapping his fingers. Something sizzled between them for a moment before time seemed to snap out of place for a second.

            When everything felt normal again, Ryan felt a shiver shoot down his spin and he pulled Ray closer. “I wish,” he said, smiling as Ray laughed slightly.

            “Another one already?” Ray whispered, slipping his hands from Ryan’s shoulders up to his hair.

            Ryan chuckled, rubbing small circles into Ray’s back. “I wish, that you could be free from the lamp and do whatever you wanted.”

            Ryan could hear Ray’s fingers snap behind him before the lamp shattered at their feet. The bands around Ray’s arms snapped, disintegrating as they fell to the ground. “You know what I want to do?” Ray said, smirking up at Ryan when he rolled his eyes.

            “You’re ridiculous, but I’ll bite, what?” Ryan said, laughing when Ray surged up to kiss him. Closing his eyes, he kissed back. When they parted, they both had goofy grins on their faces.

            Ray’s eyes focused on Ryan and he gasped, smiling brighter than before. “Holy fuck I’m free,” he said, laughing loudly when Ryan nodded, “I’m finally free!”

            Ryan laughed and picked Ray up, spinning him around. Ray clung to his shoulders and kissed him again in the middle of the bazar.

           

* * *

 

            Workers scrambled to stay out of Edgar’s way as he rampaged through the artifacts, breaking a few. He cursed and mumbled about lamps until his eyes snapped toward a golden oil lamp resting on one of the tables.

            With a manic smile, he burst toward the table and scooped up the lamp. Before he could rub the side, a large hand dropped onto his shoulder and forced him to turn around.

            “You know what I wish?” Ray said, smirking at Edgar from over Ryan’s shoulder, “I wish that all of the genies trapped in their lamps were free from their imprisonment.”

            “No-“ Edgar gasped, but before he could move, Ray had snapped his fingers and the lamp in his hand shattered into a puff of blue smoke.

            Workers gasped and stumbled away as more multicolored smoke burst from the ground and the tables. “No!” Edgar shouted as the smoke took shape and turned into men and women in robes and dresses. Golden bands strapped to their wrists cracked and disintegrated as they slipped from their skin.

            “What the fu-Ray?!” the genie that emerged from the lamp Edgar had been holding said, looking at Ray wide eyed.

            “Michael!” Ray gasped, tackling the other genie as Ryan glared down at Edgar.

            “Ray? Not to ruin your reunion or anything, but may I suggest a wish?” Ryan said, smirking when Edgar paled.

            “Of course, Rye,” Ray said, pressing himself into Ryan’s side, “What do you got?”

            “That Edgar loses all of his power and is arrested for attempted murder after I punch his goddamn lights out,” Ryan said, grip tightening on Edgar’s shoulder when he started to try and back up.

            “Done,” Ray laughed, snapping his fingers.

            “Oh, I’m going to enjoy this,” Ryan said as he pulled back his fist, police sirens wailing in the background.

            The last thing Edgar saw was their smug smiles and then Ryan’s fist as he was punched straight in the nose. He heard a sharp crack before dropping to the ground unconscious.

            Ray cheered as the workers applauded and the genies looked at each other confused. Ryan waved his slightly bloodied hand with a brilliant grin. Ray laughed and kissed him hard before hugging Michael again and explaining what was happening to him.

            Ryan stared at Ray dazed for a moment before grinning. A few workers patted him on the back before the police came over and asked what the ever loving hell was going on.


	26. Hunter and the Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beauty and the Beast AU with a bit of a twist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
> 
> Want to read more of my things? Go to vidparson.tumblr.com

            Nestled at the bottom of a tall hill was a small town with cozy cottages and content people. There was a small bookstore and a large bakery. The bar was owned by the town’s most famous hunter. The dirt road leading into the town dipped below the land beside the road, dust pluming up from every step someone took.

            Only one carriage inched down the road, hay poking out of the cloth tarp covering the back of the cart. The horse was old with heavy, slow footsteps. The people edged past each other to finally go home with waves and exhausted smiles. A few farmers dragged small carts behind them full of gourds.

            One girl in a bright blue dress and white apron, long brown hair pulled back with a blue ribbon, earned strange looks which she never saw, her nose buried in a book. She had to stop short when a young, unfamiliar horse appeared suddenly in front of her. She gasped and stumbled back, blinking up at the young man sitting on the horse.

            “Oh shit, sorry,” the man said, offering the girl an awkward smile, “You okay?”

            “I’m fine, have a good night!” the girl said as she walked away, reading once again.

            The man shook his head and scratched his short, scraggly beard as he looked around the town. He followed the road up the hill towards a heavy forest. The tips of the towers of a castle poked out from top of the trees.

            Sighing, he looked at the road and nudged his horse forward. The black mare snorted at anyone who got too close, hooves and legs covered in dust. Her rider slumped in his saddle, eyes heavy and body swore. His black boots only came up about half way up his calf. Heavy, tight leather pants stuffed into the boots. The tip of the sheath of a knife poked out from his brown leather jacket. A black belt was tight around his waist, weighed down by bulging pouches and two knives. A wrinkled black shit poked out from the color of the jacket.

            Slung on his back was a rifle with the butt pointing toward the sky. Heavy black gloves covered his hands and he was glad the air was biting or else he would be sweating. His jacket and gloves were only slightly bulky, fitting him fairly well. He could hold onto his mare’s reins well. He had been bearing the weight of the armor for years, but the layers could still drag at his shoulders.

            He glanced over the buildings lining the main drag of the small village as the sun sunk below the horizon. The bar caught his eye and he spurred his horse toward the building. Slipping from his saddle he hissed as he tried to walk like a normal human.

            His mare secured to the post, he shuffled into the bar and glanced around. Only a short, chubby man with a large, round nose was behind the bar. The rest of the patrons were around heavy wooden tables, talking over their diners on shining pewter plates and overflowing beer steins.

            “Do you have in rooms open?” the man asked the man behind the bar cleaning round glasses with a graying rag.

            “Yep!” the man said cheerfully, setting the glass down and leaning against the bar, “How many nights?”

            “Probably two,” the man said, digging in the jingling pouch hanging from his left hip.

            The bartender nodded and dug around for a key for a moment before asking Ray for only that night’s pay. Ray dropped the coins into his hand before taking the key. He went back out to stable his horse down the street according to the bartender’s directions.

            Once in the room, he collapsed on the bed with a tired grown. He fell asleep before he could consider taking his clothes off. He woke, stiffly, to the sound of drunks loudly singing off key. He scowled as he pushed himself up and pulled off his leather armor. Glancing out the window, he puffed out a small chuckle when he realized the sun was sinking below the horizon again.

            Downstairs, a tall, muscular man with long, tied back black hair sung about how great he, ‘the great Gaston’ was. Rolling his eyes, the man sat at the bar and ordered his diner. He looked around at the disturbing amount of animal heads staring at them. Over the fireplace hung a painting of the muscular man. He shook his head and stared at the bar.

            Sighing when the song finally ended, he winced when the muscular man dropped into the seat beside him. “Ah! You’re the stranger my bartender told me about,” he said, voice booming, “Who are you? Not many come through here.”

            “Name’s Ray,” the man sighed, offering Gaston his hand, “I’m a hunter for hire.”

            Gaston laughed, ignoring Ray’s hand as he turned toward the rest of the bar. “You hear that fellas? He’s a hunter for hire!”

            As Ray shook his head, resting his hand on the bar again, a loud laugh echoed through the men. “I’m not a normal hunter,” he said, leaning back when Gaston leaned closer, eyeing him.

            “I’m the best hunter there is!” Gaston huffed, leaning back and folding his arms.

            “Of normal animals,” Ray snorted, passing the bartender his pay when his diner was set in front of him, “I’m a monster hunter.”

            That silenced the place. Ray smirked to himself as he dug in. Gaston was staring him agape, blinking slowly.

            Ray frowned when Gaston slowly started to smile. “A monster hunter, hum?” he said carefully, rubbing his chin.

            “Yes?” Ray said after swallowing, grabbing the water the tender brought him.

            “Perfect!” Gaston said, slapping Ray’s back just as he took a drink. Ray gagged then coughed water back into the wooden stein, glaring at Gaston. “You can help us then.”

            “Don’t see why you need me,” Ray croaked setting the stein down and wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, “Aren’t you the greatest hunter?”

            “Yes, but you’re an expert in a different way,” Gaston said, turning to face Ray, leaning his elbow against the counter, “You see, there’s a castle at the top of the hill.”

            Ray nodded, carefully sipping his water and leaning away. “I saw,” he said after swallowing.

            Gaston nodded as the bar slowly went into their own conversations. “Well, there’s a beast living in that castle. He kidnaps people from the village for days at a time before letting them go.”

            Ray sat up a bit straighter, tapping his fork against the plate. “Are they injured?” he said slowly, eyes glazing over, “I’ve never heard of a monster lettings it’s prey go before.”

            “They claim they’re fine, but they have this wild story about this gentle monster,” Gaston scoffed, shaking his head, “The last one was the woman I have been trying to convince to marry me.”

            Ray raised an eyebrow before pursing his lips and nodding slowly. He looked down at his meal then shrugged. “I’ll check it out. If there’s something I can do, pay me when I come back. If I don’t come back for a month call in another hunter.”

            Gaston smiled brightly and offered Ray his hand. “You’ve got yourself a deal, hunter,” he said with what Ray supposed was supposed to be a charming smile, “Consider the rest of your stay here free.”

            Ray smiled and nodded, taking Gaston’s hand and refusing to wince when Gaston purposefully held his hand tighter and tighter as they shook. Once Gaston let go, he was off walking around the rest of the bar, talking with the men of the town.

            Finally alone with his meal, Ray devoured everything then slipped away before anyone could notice he was gone. He’d rest tonight then head out tomorrow. Unless Gaston pestered him too much, then he’d leave the instant he could.

            Thankfully, Gaston liked to hunt during the day, despite not much being out and about in the woods at the moment. So Ray was free to get the names of all of the people who were kidnapped from the townspeople. There was an even mix of men and women who had been trapped in the castle and all of them said the same. They had found themselves out in the woods for some reason or another. They came to the castle and went inside. They met this monster and were offered a place for as long as they needed one. The monster had told each of them specifically that they were free to leave whenever they wanted.

            He wasn’t sure what to make of their insistence that inanimate objects were talking and dancing. Then again, he had never heard of a monster like this. Sure there were plenty that hid away in castles and kidnapped people, but he had never heard of them letting their prey leave. Eat them? Sure. Kill them for the sport? Rare, but he had seen such a thing happen. Just let them go? Never.

            His curiosity was certainly peaked. This, after all, was his favorite part of his job. Learning about new and strange creatures was always a good time. Most hunters had a set way of handling new threats, but Ray liked to learn about what he was facing before acting.

            So, after a loud night of _more_ drunken singing, he headed out before the sun was up. His mare snorted unhappily at him when he woke her up at the stable. “Sorry, Pat,” he said softly petting her muzzle.

            Pat snorted at him again as he grabbed his saddle, but held still. Her hooves were shockingly quiet as they slipped out of the sleeping town. The path to the castle hadn’t been cared for in years, trees fallen across the path and the road ripped up by the weather.

            Bushes ate up the earth and the dirt was nearly too soft. Frowning, Ray urged Pat forward, having to guide her through a steep patch. The further they went, the worst the road became until they were climbing over rocks.

            They were both breathing hard, the sun sinking on the horizon, by the time they reached the castle wall. “Fuck,” Ray sighed as he pushed himself to open the large, wooden doors. Pat’s hooves echoed loudly through the stone halls of the dark castle.

            They passed rooms completely bare of furniture. The hallways were equally as empty minus the plush red carpet that Pat refused to step on because the fibers stuck to her hooves.

            He thought he could hear faint whispering around him, even Pat’s ears were twitching, but he wasn’t sure if he should instantly assume they were ghosts. Sometimes the wind sounded unnervingly human.

            He found tall stairs leading up into the hallways surrounding a tall room full of Roman statues and a dried up fountain. Ray scowled at the painted ceiling and Greek pillars before shaking his head and going up the stairs.

            They walked slowly, Pat’s reins in one of Ray’s hands and the other resting on the hilt of his knife. Pat snorted and neighed softly, looking around nervously. He felt like he was being watched and the voices were getting louder and accompanied by dull thuds and sharp tinks.

            “Geoff!”

            Ray snapped around, pulling his blade and looking around. Pat was stalk still as Ray slowly edged toward where he heard the voice. There was nothing in the hallway, but after years of hunting monsters and creatures, he had a good sense for when something was nearby.

            “Who’s there?” Ray said, adjusting his grip on his knife.

            He frowned when he heard a harsh, whispered conversation, freezing when a mantle clock suddenly _walked_ into the hallway, the carefully carved wood at the sides acting like arms as the clock coughed. The hands of the face seemed to be a mustache as tired eyes stared up at him.

            “I am Geoff, head of the household,” the clock said, bowing lazily, “Would you like to join us for diner?”

            Ray stared at the clock which blinked tiredly up at him. He opened his mouth, but all of his words left him when a golden candle stick hopped into the hallway as well. “I’m Jack, sorry about him. He’s uh…” the candlestick said, the fires on his head and arms flickering.

            “What the fuck?” Ray said as he sheathed his blade and kneeled down. Pat whined behind him, clopping over to sniff at the candle stick. Jack yelped and hopped away from Pat whose breath kept putting out his fires.

            “You’re hungry right? After the walk up here?” Geoff said before Jack could even open his mouth, “We’ve got dinner ready!”

            Ray’s brow furrowed as he stare down at the clock, which was grinning up at him, while Jack slapped his arm candle against his head candle.

            “I’m going crazy,” Ray said softly, glancing at Pat who looked just as worried about her own mental health. Neither of them, in their years of hunting magically creatures and monsters, had ever seen objects become sentient.

            “Not at all!” Jack gasped, shaking his head, “We’re just-“

            “We’ll explain at diner,” Geoff said, waving at Ray to follow him as he turned and waddled away, “Right now, you’re hungry and our guest and we can’t let shit like that stand.”

            “Geoff!” Jack hissed, hopping after the clock, “You’ll disturb-“

            “Are you coming?” Geoff said, slapping his wooden arm against Jack’s mouth and looking at Ray.

            Ray and Pat shared glances before shrugging and following the candlestick and clock. The two were arguing quietly, glaring at each other. They lead him through twists and turns in the castle, Pat hooves no longer echoing as loudly.

            Eventually they came to a long room with a large table standing empty in the middle. Jack, huffing at Geoff, hopped away and stuck his arm into the fireplace nestled in the wall, the fire suddenly bursting to life, showing off tall, blue walls, red curtains pulled tight over giant windows, and various paintings of people standing next to tables and riding horses.

            “Now then,” Geoff said, jumping up onto the table. Ray and Pat jumped when a spotlight suddenly shined from the ceiling down onto the clock.

            “What the fu- where the hell is that coming from?” Ray mumbled as he squinted at the ceiling, Pat nervously pressing up behind him.

            “Geoff,” Jack warned, but Geoff was already grinning a bit crazily.

            “It’s with the deepest pride and greatest pleasure, that we welcome you tonight,” Geoff said, some instruments quietly playing in the background. Ray and Pat looked around rapidly, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from in the dark dining.

            “And now, we invite you to relax,” Geoff said, gesturing behind them as the thumping of wood rapidly raced up to him. Ray’s hand flew to his knife as a soft, chair with purple cushions and cherry wood frame hit the back of his knees and caught him as he felt.

            “Oof, ow, why me?” a voice grumbled behind him. Ray turned and gasped as he saw a face twisted in face in the wood of the back rest. He made to stand, but the chair pushed himself tight against the table. Pat whined and clopped away as the tink of china and metal filled the great hall.

            “The dining room proudly presents, you’re diner,” Geoff said as silver serving platters jumped onto the table.

Ray’s jaw dropped as the music started to pick up and Geoff started to fucking _sing_ , the platters dancing in well-timed choreography.

            “Tie your napkin ‘round your neck and we provide the rest,” Geoff sang as the chair arms lifted from their setting and grabbed a yellow napkin. He grabbed the napkin when the chair made to tie the fabric around his neck. He tried to slip free, but there were dancing inanimate objects fucking everywhere, even on Pat’s back, much to the horse’s displeasure.

            Jack hopped onto the table and sighed as Geoff held a platter out to Ray. “Try the gray stuff, it’s delicious!” Ray rapidly shook his head, eyes wide and confused as Geoff shrugged and continued on singing.

            “Pat?” Ray said carefully, pressing his hands against the edge of the table, trying to push away from Geoff and the wonderful smelling diner that could be poisoned. “Hey, stop that!” the chair hissed, the arms wrapping around Ray’s chest, trapping his arms to his side, “You’re going to hurt someone!”

            Gritting his teeth, Ray looked over at his mare which was trying to stay as far away from the escalating song as possible. Huffing a sigh, he slumped in the chair and watched as a walking cupboard opened up and singing plates rolled onto the table.

            “Help me,” Ray hissed at Jack who just gave him a helpless look.

            “He’s been planning his for months,” Jack sighed, shaking his head and folding his arms, “I’m afraid you’re just going to have to wait this one out.”

            Ray groaned and sunk further into the chair. He spluttered when Geoff threw a paper menu at him with an amused smirk. He glared at the clock as he batted the menu away with his trapped arms.

            He frowned as the serving platters danced past with loads of food piled up. His stomach growled and he pushed at the chair's arms. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said over his shoulder, the chair hesitantly letting him go.

            “Good, stop slumping though, it’s uncomfortable as fuck for me,” the chair said, the legs rocking from side to side.

            “This is fucking weird,” Ray grumbled as he reached out and snatched up some of that gray stuff on a cookie. He was either super hungry or that shit was really good. Either way, he nibbled on the cookie after licking off the gray stuff.

            Jack smiled at him before looking back at Geoff and the dishes as the spoons dived into the punch bowl. The beer steins nearly spilled themselves on Ray who flinched nervously away. Jack jumped when the spotlight was suddenly on him, Geoff draping himself over him, careful of his fires.

            “Life is so unnerving, for a servant who’s not serving,” Geoff sang, hanging on Jack’s arm with a shit eating grin, “He’s not whole without a soul to wait upon.”

            “Geoff, get off!” Jack hissed, trying to edge away while Ray watched with a raised eyebrow. Pat was finally able to slip by the dishes, leaning down to sniff at the cookie Ray was eating.

            “Ah, those good old days, when we were useful,” Geoff sighed, putting his arm against his forehead and leaning back dramatically. Jack gave Ray an awkwardly sheepish smile, trying to edge away while he was free. “Suddenly those good old days are gone!”

            Geoff managed to snag Jack’s arm as the salt shakers sprinkled onto them, the salt piling up on poor Jack. Ray gave Pat one of the crackers from the tray one of the dishes was nice enough to set in front of them, plenty of gray stuff to go around.

            “Ten years we’ve been rusting,” Geoff sang, hanging off of Jack again, “Needing so much more than dusting!”

            Ray frowned, tuning out some of the rest of the song. They’ve been like this for ten years? He jumped when a new voice started singing, a bouncing tea pot. “It’s a guest, it’s a guest, sakes alive, well, and I’ll be blessed!” She said, her lid a bright pink while her base was a shining white. Her spigot was acting as her nose.

            Ray stared at her with a cookie dangling from his lips, Pat watching with narrowed eyes as she ate a carrot from Ray’s hand. The napkins started dancing around the teapot and Ray began to wonder what the rules were, what could be sentient and what couldn’t be?

            “Lindsey!” Jack said, having freed himself from Geoff who was laughing with one of the steins nearly empty beside him, “Not you too!”

            “What the fuck,” Ray breathed as Pat pressed her nose against his temple, “This is some weird shit.”

            The tea cups started dancing now, mainly running into each other and cursing. All of them were glaring at each other, one with a small chip in the lip, bouncing over to him and smiling brightly. There was hot tea sloshing from inside him and Ray smiled awkwardly back.

            He shook his head when the cup offered him tea. He wasn’t going to be drinking anything coming out of these things, minus this gray stuff. Seriously, what was it?

            Now the damn vases, full of flowers, were scooting around the table, throwing their petals everywhere. Ray leaned back when they landed near him, eyes wide in horror. Weren’t those their brains or where the flowers not sentient? What were the god damn rules?!

            He watched all of the dishes stack themselves as Geoff started singing again on top of a massive cake, he was definitely drunk. Who the hell even made that, did any of these things even have opposable thumbs or did some magic just do everything for them? Ray jumped when bubbling wine bottles were lined up and then the corks launched into the air. Foaming wine shot toward the ceiling as a chandler dropped from above, bright fires lighting the room.

            They paused in place for a moment as the music abruptly ended. Ray frowned as the silence stretched on for a moment before a soft murmur filled the room as the dishes started to move. With the show over, the dishes scurried away the teapot ordering them around for cleaning as Geoff wobbled over to Ray with a drunk smile, Jack hopping after him.

            “So, how was it?” Geoff hiccupped, falling back onto the table.

            Ray blinked slowly as Jack sighed and helped Geoff up. “What the fuck,” he said, jumping when the chair started to lift up, making him stand.

            “Holy fuck you’re heavy!” the chair groaned, rubbing the indent Ray had left in the cushion.

            “Thanks for taking the fall, Jeremy,” Jack said to the chair as he held Geoff up.

            “No problem, boss,” Jeremy sighed, shuffling away as Ray watched with a dropped jaw, Pat’s head hooked on his shoulder.

            “Weirdest enchanted castle, ever,” Ray mumbled, looking back at Geoff and Jack, Pat nodding slightly beside him.

            “Enchanted! Who told you the castle was enchanted!” Jack gasped, shooting Geoff a glare who rolled his eyes.

            “Uh, you’re a talking clock and candle stick. Of course the castle is fucking enchanted,” Ray snorted, folding his arms, “Unless I’ve finally lost my mind.”

            Geoff and Jack shared looks before smiling up at Ray. “Well-“ Geoff said when a door creaking open and the click of claws echoed through the room.

            Ray jumped and whipped around, pulling his gun out and resting the butt against his shoulder. The furniture and dishes froze as they all looked at the door. The barrel pointed right at a towering beast with dark blond fur and piercing blue eyes. The monster stood on its toes, long, sharp claws digging into the stone floor. Long, strong arms hung from wide, broad shoulders. A tattered white shirt covered the beast’s chest, a red jewel clasping a long, ripped purple cape to the shirt. Short horns poked out from either side of the beast’s head, floppy, velvet ears under the horns. Crooked, sharp teeth jutted out past thin lips.

            “Master Ryan!” Jack and Geoff gasped, nervously edging down the table.

            Ray narrowed his eyes as the monster looked him up and down, adjusting his grip on the trigger. “So you’re the beast?” Ray said carefully, slowly lowering his gun when the beast just snorted, eyes looking from side to side quickly, “Who are you, what’s going on around here?”

            The beast stood tall in the doorway for a moment more, before suddenly curling in on itself. The massive monster edged into the room, eyeing Ray nervously. “I-well,” the beast sighed, following the wall to the other end of the table and poking at one of the platters left on the table. The furniture and dishes suddenly scattered with the teapot shouting at them. The beast cringed as the door swung closed behind them. “I’m the master of this castle, my name’s Ryan Haywood.”

            Ray frowned and hesitantly slung his gun over his shoulder. “Okay, mind telling me why random shit is alive and you’re a monster?”

            Ryan flinched and awkwardly picked up one of the cookies and shoved the entire thing into his mouth. He chewed carefully, running his giant claws through his fur to make sure that there were no crumbs clinging to the strands.

            “Uh,” Ryan said, coughing awkwardly, “It’s a long story?”

            Ray raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. “I would sit but my chair walked away,” he said with a smile.

            Ryan snorted and gave him a sharp tooth grin. He shook his head and hesitantly walked around the table. “As long as you don’t pull out that gun again, you can follow me to the study.”

            Ray nodded and followed after the beast, Pat whining as she followed after him. “How are you talking so clearly with those teeth?” he found himself blurting with a wince as they left the room.

            Ryan laughed and looked back at him, his tail dragging behind him. “You know, I have no idea,” he said, reaching up to poke at his longest teeth. They were bright white and poked up from his bottom lip. “I’ve wondered the same, actually.”

            Ray sighed in relief, glancing around them as Jack quietly lit the hallway candles. Frowning, he looked back at Ryan and let his hand rest on the hilt of one of his blades. Pat snorted and pressed her nose against his back.

            “Is your horse a dog or something?” Ryan said over his shoulder, startling Ray, “She follows you like one.”

            “Eh,” Ray shrugged, reaching up to pat Pat’s neck, “She’s been with me since the beginning.”

            “The beginning?” Ryan said, raising a furry eyebrow.

            “Gift from my father actually,” Ray said, mouth twisting awkwardly as Ryan watched him, “When I first became a monster hunter.”

            Ryan nodded and looked forward again. “It’s a good gift,” he said softly and Ray frowned.

            They walked the halls the only sounds were the clop of Pat’s hooves and the occasional faint whispers from Jack and Geoff. Eventually they came to tall, double doors. Ryan carefully pushed open one of the white doors to a massive library with a tall ceiling. There was a giant window and floor to ceiling bookcases.

            “Holy shit,” Ray breathed, looking around with wide eyes, “I’ve never seen so many books.”

            “It’s not the biggest library in the world,” Ryan chuckled as he sat in front of a fire Jack lit just before he scurried back to the door where Geoff, Lindsey, and Jeremy were watching them through a crack. Ryan curled up on himself, almost like a cat. He rested his chin on his arms which were folded in front of him. His back feet were tucked tightly under him, his cape draped over him as the fire flickered in his eyes.

            “You’re running under the assumption that I’ve seen a book before,” Ray snorted, walking over to the fire place and crouching in front of the fire. Pat stayed back, looking around the library and resisting the temptation to eat everything.

            Ryan raised an eyebrow and tapped his claws against the marble floor. “So you can’t read then?”

            “Never needed to,” Ray shrugged, holding his hands in front of the fire. The room was mostly dark. The fire couldn’t reach every corner as their shadows danced on the floor.

            Ryan snorted and watched Ray for a moment before sighing. “Well, I would offer you a seat, but even I don’t sit on the chairs. I’m not sure when one is a servant or not.” He paused, frowning as Ray looked at him over his shoulder. “I suppose I owe you a story.”

            Ray nodded, turning to sit with the fire warming his back. “Yeah, I’d say,” he said, folding his arms, “I didn’t make Pat climb all the way up here for nothing.” Pat snorted from where she was poking at a few books scattered on a table with her nose.

            Ryan chuckled and rubbed his face with his paw. He spared Pat a glance before looking at Ray again. “Well, it started when my parents died when I was five.”

            Ray tensed, and frowned, hugging himself slightly. “Oh, well then,” he coughed, smiling sheepishly when Ryan chuckled.

            “Geoff, the clock? He became the regent because I was sitting in a throne too big for me. When I was ten, this strange old woman came knocking on our door and demanded that we let her stay for the night in exchange for a rose,” Ryan said, scowling slightly, “She was very old, and I would have let her, if she didn’t try to steal from us while a servant was leading her around.”

            Ray snorted and shook his head. “Witch,” he said with a nod. Ryan gave him a strange look and he shrugged. “I hunt magical creatures too.”

            Shaking his head, Ryan seemed to give him a bright smile under all of the fur. “Well, you’re right. She was a witch. When we kicked her out, she turned into a beautiful woman and cursed us. She told me something to the effect that since I was a little mongrel brat, I would live my life as one and my staff would live their days as household objects.”

            Ray snorted and pulled his knees to his chest, folding his arms on top of them. “Typical witch,” he said, resting his cheek on his arms, “I bet she said the only way to break the spell was for you to fall in love, right? What’s the time limit?”

            “When I turned twenty one, the rose she tried to give us would bloom and I have to fall in love before the last petal falls,” Ryan said with a crooked grin, resting his elbow on the floor and his furry chin in his palm, “ If I don’t, we’ll stay like this forever.”

            Ray pursed his lips, brow furrowing. “Pretty standard. Witches had weird as fuck curses. So why kidnap people and why let them go?”

            Ryan shifted awkwardly, eyes shifting from Ray to stare intensely at the fire. “Well, I don’t kidnap people, some of them just kind of end up here after being lost in the woods. We let them in. I’m not cruel enough to just kidnap people and make them fall in love with me. That’s wrong on so many levels.”

            Ray snorted then nodded and sighed. “Well, I don’t know magic very well, sadly, and the last time I ran into something even remotely close to this, I found the witch and just killed her.”

            “And that broke the spell?” Ryan said, sitting up slightly, eyes wide. His tail started to tap against the ground.

            “Yeah, but this is way different,” Ray said, giving Ryan an apologetic smile, “If that witch was powerful enough to enchant an entire castle on her own, she would also be able to completely separate herself from the spell.”

            Ryan sighed, head falling into his palm again. His tail went limp and his bottom lip jutted out more than before. “Great,” he mumbled.

            Ray chuckled and glanced around the room again. Pat was sniffing at a book that was left open on one of the few tables littering the room. He caught her eye and gave her a stern look as she pretended to be innocent.

            Ryan watched him lazily, Jack, Geoff, Lindsey and her teacups, and Jeremy glancing at each other at the door. “Is there another way you could help me?” Ryan said eventually, Ray’s eyes snapping back to him.

            Ray pursed his lips then shrugged. “Short of falling in love with you, probably not,” he said with an awkward laugh, “I don’t fall in love easy either. How much time do you have?”

            Ryan studied Ray for a moment before pushing himself up to his feet and crawling over. Ray dropped his knees and hovered his hand over the butt of his gun. He tensed then relaxed as Ryan flopped down next to him, giant head leaning up against his lap. “The first petal just fell,” Ryan rumbled quietly, “Perhaps we could try the falling in love bit?”

            Ray blinked down at the beast whose tail was patting the ground slightly. He held in a laugh and let his arms fall to his sides. “I guess?” he laughed slightly, “Are you sure you’re not the dog?”

            Ryan laughed and closed his eyes, entire body moving with his breathing. Ray shook his head and hesitantly ran his fingers through his extremely soft fur. “Weirdest enchanted castle, ever,” he said, smiling when Ryan started to purr then laughed.

 

* * *

 

            The castle was eerily quiet when Ryan left him in one of the many bedrooms. The room was dark; a large canopy bed took up most of the space. Pat had been stabled down stairs not too long ago after she tried to eat one of the books.

            Ray sighed and hesitantly walked over to the bed. “You’re not alive, are you?” he mumbled, poking at the bedding.

            “Of course the bed’s not fucking alive,” a voice snapped, making Ray jump and pull his knife for the twentieth time that night. Random shit would just start talking to him and he should really be used to the disembodied voices by now. Instead, he just seemed to amuse Ryan every time he jumped and threatened a teacup with a knife.

            “Over here, asshole,” the voice said as Ray slowly turned, searching for the living furniture.

            A dresser wobbled over to him, the doors opened and curled into folded arms. Clothes and drawers hung out of him as he walked over to Ray and squinted at him. “What are the fucking rules about this place?!” Ray groaned, slamming his knife back into the sheath.

            “Like we fucking know,” the dresser snorted, turning to look at a floor length mirror, “Hey Gavvy, we’ve got a visitor.”

            “Wot?!” The mirror lit up in a reflection of a tall man with wild brown hair and bright green eyes. He pressed his face against the mirror as though he was looking at them from outside a window.

            Ray blinked and scowled. “Okay, now why does he have human-ish form?” he said, looking at the dresser.

            “Fuck if I know, I heard from Geoff that you’re a monster hunter,” the dresser said as the mirror slowly edged toward them, “You tell me.”

            Ray sighed and dropped onto the bed. “Well, we’re all shit out of luck then,” he said, smiling tiredly up at them, “So what are your names?”

            “I’m Gavin!” the man in the mirror said cheerfully before gesturing to the dresser, “And that’s Micoo!”

            “Michael, idiot,” Michael grumbled, shaking his head which just translated to shaking his entire body.

            Ray snorted and flopped back onto the bed. “Awesome,” he sighed, closing his eyes.

            Michael and Gavin shared glances before Gavin started talking non-stopping and Michael started yelling at him to shut up. Ray smiled and slowly slipped out of his armor without opening his eyes. Michael shouting Gavin’s name and then a crash chased him into his sleep as he curled up under the heavy, warm covers.

            “Good morning!” Gavin shouted in Ray’s ear as the sun streamed in from the tall windows.

            Ray groaned and slammed a pillow into Gavin’s face before burying himself further under the covers.

            “Come on!” Gavin whined, hands thumping against the glass.

            Ray sighed and pushed the covers away as Michael waddled over. “Come on, asshole,” he said as Ray sat up, “Ryan’s waiting for you.”

            Ray puffed a sigh and reached for his armor, yelping and yanking his hand back when Michael swatted at him with one of his doors. “Not in that, here.” A crisp white shirt and black slacks pulled from inside Michael were dropped onto the bed. “That.”

            Ray wrinkled his nose as he picked the clothes up. “Are these your guts?” he said, hesitantly unbuttoning the shirt.

            Michael opened his mouth then stopped himself. “No?” he said, brow furrowing. The crown molding on top of his head curled tightly and bowed as he thought.

            Gavin gasped, hands holding his face. “What if they are?”

            “I don’t fucking know!” Michael snapped, shooting Gavin a glare.

            Ray laughed and tugged his smelly clothes off and pulled the new ones on. He locked his belt into place, leaving his gun leaning up against the wall. He stomped his feet a few times to make sure his boots went on alright before leaving, Michael and Gavin still fighting behind the closed door.

            He wandered through the castle until he stumbled upon the staples with a confused huff. Pat whinnied at him, pressing against the stable door impatiently. “Hey, now,” Ray chuckled, quickly going over and petting her muzzle, “It’s alright.”

            He glanced around then shrugged. No reason to make himself more lost. When he found the brushes they fled from him. He chased them through the stable for a solid ten minutes before just asking them to brush Pat down. He leaned against the door as Pat nipped at his hair, the brushes pulling the hay and burrs from her coat.

            “Fucking witches,” Ray mumbled, smiling when Pat huffed at him.

            “There you are!” Jack said, hopping into the stable, wringing his candle hands around each other, “We’ve been looking everywhere!”

            “Sorry, I got lost and ended up down here,” Ray said, looking at Jack over his shoulder.

            Jack sighed and shook his head. “Well, come this way. Ryan’s waiting for you to join him for breakfast.”

            Ray nodded and patted Pat’s muzzle one last time before following the candle stick through the castle. Ray scowled at every twist and turned, feeling more lost than before. Jack hopped into the dining room, the windows pulled open with thick gold robes and a feast laid out on the table. Ryan sat at one end of the table, chatting with the silverware and china sitting closest to him.

            “Sorry I’m late,” Ray said, awkwardly studying the chair. There wasn’t a face, but he still sat down slowly, ready to jump up if the chair decided to talk.

            “It's fine, the castle is hard to navigate,” Ryan said, vaguely listening to what Jack was telling him, “Did you sleep well?”

            “Better than I have in a while,” Ray said with a shrug, looking down at the plate and frowning when a face stare back at him.

            “Good,” Ryan said with a kind smile, letting the serving plates and spoons begin to load up his plate with pastries, potatoes, and strips of meat, “Sorry about, all this. They’re a little excited about having a guest.”

            “Damn right we are!” Geoff said, pulling himself up onto the table, a beer stein following after him.

            Ray snorted, frowning when his plate closed its eyes when food started piling on top. “Do, uh. We have to eat on people?”

            “It’s fiiine,” Geoff snorted, leaning against the stein with a drunken smile, “They’re used to it.”

            “Yeah, that’s great. I’m not,” Ray sighed, hesitantly picking up a fork. The fork gave him a cheerful grin before closing its eyes and pressing its mouth into a tight line. Ray scowled and looked between the fork and the food rapidly piling up on his plate.

            “It’s alright, believe me. If they didn’t want to do this, you would know,” Ryan said, picking up a fork as gently as he could.

            Ray watched him carefully eat delicately before shaking his head and digging in. The less he thought about the people he was eating with the easier he could get through the meal. The possibility that the plate couldn’t breathe under all that delicious food didn’t hurt his speed. Anything to get this awkwardness over with.

            “How long do you plan to stay?” Ryan said, catching Ray with food in his mouth.

            He waited patiently as Ray chewed and swallowed with pink dusted cheeks. “Uh, well. Long enough to see if there is anything I can do to help you. Probably not longer than a month.”

            “Why a month?” Jack said, narrowing his eyes at Ray. He and Geoff had been talking quietly with each other. Geoff folded his arms, his watch hand mustache ticking quietly.

            “Well, I told the town to send in another hunter if I didn’t come back in a month,” Ray shrugged, flinching when his fork blinked at him again.

            “Ah, yes. That would be bad,” Ryan said, shaking his head. He dabbed his lips with a napkin, claws leaving holes in the fabric.

            Ray nodded, slowly setting his fork down with a wince when the metal clanged against the wood. “Yeah, by the way, where are you getting all of this food from?”

            Ryan blinked slowly at Ray before looking at Jack then Geoff who both awkwardly shrugged. “There’s always food in the kitchen, no matter how much we make,” Lindsey said as she rolled in on a cart. Her tea cups lined up and hopped onto the table, “We think it’s part of the spell since none of us can leave here.”

            “Huh,” Ray said, frowning at the food left on his plate, “Do you guys need to eat?”

            “Don’t need to,” Geoff said, patting the stein, “But we can.”

            “So bodily functions is a no?” Ray said, head tilting to the side.

            “I haven’t shit in ages,” Geoff nodded, yelping when Jack slapped him, “What?!”

            Ray chuckled and looked up at Ryan who was smiling softly at him. “I hope you can help us,” Ryan said carefully, folding his fingers, “I feel bad that they’re cursed with me.”

            Ray frowned then shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do. There might be something in that library of yours.”

            “I vaguely recall some spell books,” Ryan said with a faraway look in his eyes, “But you won’t be able to read them.”

            “Well, if you’re not doing anything, could you help?” Ray said, smiling sheepishly, “I know what to look for and you know how to read.”

            Ryan smiled and stood. “Let’s get started then,” he said, waving for Ray to follow him as the dishes started to clean themselves up.

            Ray trailed after Ryan for a few days as they found every magic book in the library and skimmed through them. About three days in, Ryan insisted on just teaching Ray how to read after the tenth time of him pointing to a word and asking if he was correct in guessing what the word was.

            “Not bad,” Ryan said as Ray managed to stumble through an entire page.

            “My head hurts,” Ray groaned, dropping his forehead onto the wooden table.

            Ryan chuckled and Ray felt gentle claws card through his hair. “Now onto the next one,” he said and Ray groaned again.

            After a week of finding nothing and still having a pile of books to go through, Ray insisted that they do something else, just for one day. “I saw the garden in the windows, I’m going to go look,” he said as he stood from the library table, “And you’re coming with me.”

            Ryan flinched, book dropping from his paws. “Uh, what? No-why-“ he said, letting Ray pull him from his seat and to the door.

            “Because we’ve been in too long and I like gardens,” Ray said, smiling back at Ryan, “Come on.”

            “Ray,” Ryan hissed, stumbling after him, “I haven’t been outside for a very long time.”

            “More reason to do it now,” Ray said, holding on tighter to Ryan’s arm. He no longer wore his weapons belt and his boots echoed familiarly through the castle.

            Ryan grumbled and pouted, but followed nevertheless, Ray not letting go of his arm. Once they were outside, Ray let go of Ryan’s arm to run out to the giant rose bushes that had gotten out of control since all of the servants lost their human forms. Fortunately or unfortunately, none of them had been turned into gardening tools.

            Ryan hesitated at the door, watch Ray’s bright smile from the shadows. His arm tingled where Ray had been holding him as Ray’s thin fingers gently ran over the petals of one of the flowers.

            Swallowing hard, and with a small push from behind from Jack and Geoff standing on Jeremy, he stepped out into the light, squinting against the sun. He raised his paw to shield his eyes as he lumbered toward Ray.

            “Ryan, these roses are beautiful,” Ray breathed, smiling softly at the plants.

            “I-well. They haven’t been cared for in a long time,” Ryan said gently, glancing around the garden, “And there used to be other flowers.”

            Ray laughed and gently tugged the rose from the bush, pulling the thrones off. “Of course, roses are stubborn and can be like weeds sometimes, killing off other plants.”

            Ryan watched Ray run his fingers over the steam and relaxed slowly. “Ah, well. No wonder you seem to like them so much.”

            “I swear to god,” Ray laughed as he turned, reaching up to tuck the rose into Ryan’s fur, “If you compare me to a rose, I will tease you mercilessly.”

            Ryan snorted and laughed, catching Ray’s hand. “It’s probably worth the teasing.”

            Ray’s face lit up pink before he rolled his eyes and slapped Ryan’s shoulder. “Alright, Shakespeare, enough of that. You can’t make me fall in love with you in a week with some pretty words.”

            Ryan let Ray’s hand slip from his, following after him as he went to the next rose bush. “How about a month?” he said, smiling when he saw Ray’s ears turn red, “And more pretty words?”

            Ray laughed and looked at him over his shoulder. “You can definitely try. Don’t know why you would want to, but you can try. In the meantime, we’ll still look for another option.”

            Ryan scowled as Ray rounded a bush. “Why wouldn’t I want to? You are the first to see me as a person. To not run from the mere sight of me.”

            “Eh,” Ray said, appearing on the other side of the bush, “I’ve sneezed things scarier than you. You look like a beast, but you’re still a prim and proper prince on the inside.”

            “I try,” Ryan laughed, moving to follow Ray when he disappeared again, “It’s hard to pick things up with claws.”

            Ray’s laugh sounded faint and Ryan pushed into the bushes, looking around for his white shirt and fluffy black hair. “That’s true,” he said, somewhere to Ryan’s left, “But you really try, that’s how I can tell. Also, you’re ridiculous with stuffing shit into your mouth when you don’t know how to answer.”

            Ryan felt the heat in his face, glad his fur hid the blush. He couldn’t help that Ray asked him the hardest questions when they were eating. “What do you want from me? To answer without thinking first?”

            “It’d be nice if you answered without having to shove the nearest thing fully into your mouth,” Ray’s voice was directly behind Ryan, startling him, “You take forever to chew.”

            Ryan blinked at Ray who was smirking up at him and shivering slightly, Ray hugged himself tightly, fingers curled up under his armpits. Ryan laughed lightly and unclasped his cape, draping the purple fabric over Ray’s gently trembling shoulders. “That’s fair,” he said softly as Ray wrapped the cape tight around him.

            Ray rolled his eyes and turned away from him, the cape flowing behind him. “Come on, there’s a lot of garden to cover.”

            Ray lead Ryan to corners of the garden he didn’t even know existed. He knew every flower and tree, every squirrel and bird. By the time Ryan insisted that they go back inside Ray was shaking so much his teeth were chattering; he decided that they would spend every other day in the garden, just so he could hear Ray talk about the plants and have that soft light glittering in his eyes.

 

* * *

 

            “I don’t think this is a good idea,” Ryan mumbled as Ray dropped Pat’s saddle onto her back.

            Ray rolled his eyes and started pulling the straps tight. “What makes you say that?” he said glancing at Ryan who shifted nervously on the other side of the stable door.

            “I haven’t been outside the castle walls in years, I don’t even know if I can. I know the others can’t.” Ryan wrung his hands together, looking around the stable nervously. Pat was snorting at him, eyes narrowed and pawing at the ground.

            “We’ll just have to see,” Ray said as he buckled the last strap and tugged on the saddle to make sure everything was secure, “Everything I need for this spell should be in these woods. Even if you can’t go, it won’t take me long to get everything.”

            Ryan groaned and pulled the door open as Ray slipped his foot into the stirrup and pulled himself up onto Pat’s back. “I like that even less.”

            “Then stop whining,” Ray laughed as he nudged Pat forward. The mare huffed then burst from the stable and out into the castle yard, Ryan racing to keep up with them.

            Ray grinned as Pat pranced around, shaking her head and stretching her legs. Ryan watched them with a tired smile, following when Ray steered Pat toward the gate.

            Besides Pat snorting at Ryan and randomly running ahead, kicking up dirt into his face, Ryan was enjoying talking to Ray as they weaved their way through the forest. Ray laughed behind his gloved hand as Ryan blew some of the dirt from his fur before smiling after them.

            Ray grinned back before steering Pat through the trees expertly. He and Pat glided over the ground and soared over streams and fallen trees. Ryan forgot that they had even left the castle until they had been out for over an hour.

            “Having fun?” Ray said, leaning against Pat’s head, chin resting between her ears as she slowly walked backwards.

            Ryan looked up at him and huffed, smiling when Pat snorted at him. “Not as much as the two of you, it seems.”

            Ray chuckled and sat up, gently tugging the reins back. Pat stopped and Ray swung his leg over her back and dropped to the ground. “Not too far,” he told the mare before letting her reins go.

            Pat whinnied, going up onto her back legs for a moment before running off into the woods. Ryan raised an eyebrow at Ray as he fell into step next to him. “What? Can’t I walk with you?”

            “Of course you can,” Ryan chuckled, carefully stepping closer to Ray so that their arms brushed, “I’m just surprised you are.”

            Ray shrugged and bumped their shoulders together. “I can’t spend too long in that saddle. I’ll start walking funny.”

            Ryan snorted and smiled down at Ray before looking forward again as Pat came back to them with a branch in her mouth. “Dear god, I didn’t think she was actually a dog.”

            “She’s not,” Ray laughed, holding his hand out. Pat dropped the branch full of bright green leaves into Ray’s hand. “This is one of the things I was hoping to find. It’s the sprig the book was talking about.”

            “Oh,” Ryan said, brows furrowing as they paused so Ray could put the sprig in Pat’s saddle bags before letting her run off again, “Do you just- remember everything? Since you can’t read?”

            “Pretty much,” Ray said with a shrug and a nod, “My Dad taught me everything I know. I spent days just reciting spells and protocol.”

            “That’s amazing,” Ryan said, looking around the forest, “Were you and your father close?”

            “Yeah, still are. He sends a crow every so often,” Ray said, arms folded behind him and back straightening as if waiting for his father to reprimand him, “He’s a really good at magic. His crow is a manifestation of that magic, so he just talks to me in real time when it shows up.”

            “Wow,” Ryan breathed, staring at Ray with wide eyes, “That’s amazing. Can’t you ask him to help?”

            “I could,” Ray said slowly, slumping slightly, “But I don’t know where he is until the crow shows up. I got one last month too, so I probably won’t until hear from him for another couple of months.”

            Ryan huffed, pouting slightly before smiling at Ray. “Well, it was worth asking.”

            Ray nodded and watched Pat run around them for a moment. “Any other questions about being a hunter?”

            Ryan pursed his lips, glancing down at Ray again and studying his armor. “What’s with the armor? You’re always wearing it.”

            Ray looked down at his armor then shrugged. “It’s warm.” He shrugged, tugging on the bottom of his leather jacket. “That and it was something I got from the guild. Apparently all hunters wear something similar. My father has a higher ranking armor.”

            “There’s a guild?” Ryan said, blinking at Ray, “There are ranks?”

            Ray laughed and nodded. “Yes and Yes. My father is part of the council. The representative for those who use magic. He was hoping I would follow in his steps.”

            “Right, but you can’t do magic,” Ryan said with a nod, reaching up to card his claws through his fur, “How do the ranks work?”

            Ray gave him a thankful smile before launching into a long complicated explanation of the levels of the hunter’s guild. Ryan got lost somewhere between the fourth and fifth tier. Instead, he focused on Ray’s hands as he gestured and spoke with a fire in his eyes. He smiled slowly as Ray finished, panting slightly.

            “You will be great,” Ryan said, gently resting a paw on his shoulder, “You’ll climb the ranks faster than your father will, I’m sure.”

            Ray’s eyes seemed to glow as he stared up at Ryan. “Thanks Ryan,” he said softly before bumping hips with him. Before Ryan could retaliate, Pat burst between them with a branch with shining purple berries on the end.

            Ray laughed as Pat and Ryan glared at each other. Once the berries were in the saddle bag, Pat went running off again. Ryan huffed after the horse and shuffled closer to Ray again. “So, is Pat also a manifestation of your father’s magic?”

            “No, why? Because she doesn’t like you?” Ray said with a smirk until Ryan huffed and looked away quickly. He blinked at Ryan before laughing and shaking his head. “You can’t be serious.”

            “Well?” Ryan said, folding his arms, “She kicked dirt at me, glares and snorts at me, and gets between us whe-“

            “When?” Ray said, raising an amused eyebrow.

            Ryan opened his mouth then smiled awkwardly. “Er, when we get close,” he coughed.

            Ray laughed and bumped against him. “You’re winning some major points here,” he said quietly before snapping his head to look at Pat, “And to answer your question, I have no idea.”

            Ryan tensed and looked at Pat who was glaring him through the trees. He awkwardly waved and the horse snorted, snapping her head forward, nose in the air, and stalking away. He winced and pouted when Ray started laughing again.

            “You’re fine, she just takes some time to warm up to everyone,” Ray said, patting Ryan’s shoulder.

            Ryan huffed and glanced at Ray’s hands. Frowning slightly, he caught his hand and carefully pinched the glove fingers with his claws and pulled the glove off. “It’s a shame that you’re hiding your hands in these big things,” he said softly as he held Ray’s small hand in his giant paw, “They’re so beautiful.”

            Ryan smirked when Ray blushed bright red, pressing his lips together and shooting Ryan an amused glare. He slipped his hand free before pulling his other glove off and taking the one Ryan was still holding. He stuffed both in his back pocket and poked Ryan’s horn. “There, happy?”

            “Very,” Ryan said, ruffling Ray’s hair before walking a bit faster.

            Ray blinked before laughing and running past Ryan. A deep growl rumbled through Ryan before he raced after Ray, occasionally going on all fours to keep up and then surpass him. He heard Ray laugh loudly behind him, Pat whinnying loudly somewhere beside him.

            He looked over and Pat was keeping pace with him easily. With a crooked grin, he picked up the pace and Pat kept up. He could vaguely hear Ray shouting for them as they dodged around trees. Pat suddenly snapped to the side and Ryan slid on the loose dirt to change direction. He scurried after Pat, running in place for only a moment before digging his claws in to gain traction.

            He followed Pat through the trees until suddenly the sun hit his face full blast and he skidded to a stop. He raised his paw to block out the sun, blinking around them. His eyes widened when he realized they were standing on a smooth road. Trees with clean cut bases laid along the sides. One had an old, rusting axe sticking out of the trunk.

            Pat whined beside him, pawing at the ground and looking around. Ryan panted and his brow furrowed. He tensed when he heard a howl and snarls in the distance, both his and Pat’s ears twitching.

            They shared one panicked look before dashing into the woods. Ryan grabbed onto trees and pushed himself forward faster and faster. Pat managed to keep pace with him, leaping over trees and ditches. They heard a gunshot then a whimper and Ryan’s heart clenched. He knew there were wolves in the woods but he didn’t think that they would be a problem during the day.

            They both burst into a clearing just as another gunshot rang into the air. Pat and Ryan panted hard and shaking. They stared at the clearing in blank confusion. A small pack of wolves, about five, were lying dead on the ground. Blood soaked into the ground and their bodies were mangled, head’s in small, gory pieces. Two corpses were hanging limply from trees by blades that glinted in the sun.

            At the center of the mess was Ray, his rifle resting on his shoulders. He held onto the butt of the gun with his back to them. There wasn’t a scratch on him.

            “Oh, there you guys are,” Ray said as he turned, grinning at them, “You two are fucking fast.”

            Pat seemed to relax and neighed at Ray. She carefully stepped over the wolves and nipped at Ray’s hair when she got to him. Ryan just stared at them blankly, breathing hard as Ray laughed and slung his gun over his back. He hugged Pat’s head before looking over at Ryan with a bright grin.

            Ryan puffed a laugh and picked his way through the bodies. “I was extremely worried,” he said, draping himself against Ray, “But I am not even surprised.”

            Ray snorted and laughed, patting Ryan’s shoulder. “Sorry, but you two were the ones who ran off.”

            “I know, and I’m sorry,” Ryan breathed before leaning back and looking Ray over, “You are okay, right?”

            “Not a scratch. They’re only wolves, Rye,” Ray chuckled as he held his hand up. Pat, who Ryan didn’t even notice move, dropped both the hilts of the blades into his palm. “I’ve killed Hellhounds the size of giants before.”

            “That does not make me feel better,” Ryan laughed as Ray pulled a rag from his pocket and cleaned the blood from his knives.

            “Well, sorry about that,” Ray shrugged, sheathing the knives before stooping to grab a wolf’s paw, “Oh, and this was the last thing we needed.”

            As Ray walked past them, Ryan looked at Pat and gave her a tired smile. “If you are at all related to his father, and even if not, how the fuck do you deal with him?”

            Pat puffed and nudged Ryan’s temple before following Ray. Ryan shook his head and trailed after the both of them.

            The spell failed, but occasionally Ray could get Ryan to walk with him out in the forest while Pat stretched her legs.

            Another week passed and they ran out of books. Ray decided to send some birds to hunters he knew. After a week, all had responded with various spells that could possibly break the curse, but none worked. Between spells and walks in the garden, Ray and Ryan found themselves nearly inseparable. They worked or walked during the day, but at night Ray sat in front of the fire, Ryan curled around him, helping him to read.

            Neither was oblivious to how bright and clean the servants were making the castle. Between Geoff and Jack literally pushing them together to Michael dumping nicer clothes on Ray in the mornings, they would have to be fairly ignorant not to get the hint.

            Honestly, Ray was a little tempted to take a try. They were getting close to the end of the month and he hadn’t had this kind of connection with anyone before. Ryan was sweet and funny, patient and gentle. He told murder jokes, but Ray found them hilarious. He was currently a giant furry beast, but if they broke the spell, he wouldn’t be anymore- probably. Hopefully.

            A tapping on his window startled Ray before he could fully get to sleep. Michael and Gavin’s arguing was white noise as he stood and let the raven chipping the glass into the room. He pulled the small roll of paper from the ribbon tied to the bird’s leg and unrolled the letter.

            Squinting at the words in the low light, he slowly mouthed the words until his eyes widened. “Holy fuck,” he breathed before smiling at the raven. He waved for the bird to fly before walking from the room, Michael and Gavin still flirtatiously fighting.

            “Ryan!” Ray called as he ran to the beast’s room, “Ryan! There’s a new spell!”

            “Ray?” Ryan blinked past the cocoon of blankets tightly wrapped around him, only his eyes visible.

            “Look!” Ray said, holding the paper up to Ryan, “I owe Tina a fuck ton for this.”

            “She found the witch?” Ryan said, pushing his head out from under the blankets.

            “No, but she knew a witch that knew a reversal spell,” Ray said with a bright grin.

Near the balcony in the beast’s room was a table with a glowing rose floating under a glass case. Petals were piled up under the steam, only three remaining on the stem.

            “Can we do it?” Ryan breathed, reaching out for Ray and reading over his shoulder, arms wrapped around his waist and chin on his shoulder.

            “Yeah, I’ll need to get some stuff from town,” Ray said as he squinted at the small list at the bottom of the paper, “I have everything to substitute the spell, but that would be a worse case scenario situation. I should go back and tell them not to send the cavalry soon anyway.”

            Ryan smiled and hugged Ray tightly. “Thank you,” he sighed, closing his eyes.

            “No problem, big guy,” Ray laughed, hugging him back, “Oh, there is one side effect, apparently.”

            Ryan held Ray by his shoulders and narrowed his eyes at Ray. “What’s that?”

            “You’ll be able to change into the beast under strong emotional situations or at will,” Ray said with a shrug, “Which would be useful if you come with me after this?”

            Ryan blinked at Ray who smile sheepishly at him, shrugging awkwardly. He slowly smiled and hugged him tightly. “I would love to come with you.”

 

* * *

 

            The small village was silent when Ray and Pat rode in. The streets were empty and the sky dark. He had left fairly early in the morning, but getting Pat all the way down the hill took longer than he wanted.

            The only lights were from the bar, the muffled shouting and singing faintly filling the street. Ray slipped off of Pat’s back and tied her to the post, scowling at the bar windows. He had been hoping to get what he needed then go straight back to the castle.

            Scrubbing his face, he took a deep breath and pushed into the bar, the entire place silencing as he stood shivering slightly in the doorway. He frowned, pulling Ryan’s cape tightly around him.

            “You’re back!” the bartender gasped as Gaston stood, smirking down at him.

            “Welcome!” Gaston said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and yanking him into the bar, “Is the beast slain? Where’s the head?”

            Ray scowled and pushed away from him, pulling the cape tighter. “He’s dead, but I need some herbs and things for a spell. Whatever he was, he built up a lot of magic.”

            “Wonderful!” Gaston said, grin loose as he scooped up a beer stein, “So, how much do you think it would be to mount the head?” He gestured to his wall of kills, a few new ones added to the ranks.

            Ray rolled his eyes and shook his head. “There is no head. When I killed it, it disintegrated.”

            Gaston tensed and narrowed his eyes at Ray. He slowly circled Ray, grabbing the cape and rubbing the heavy material between his fingers. “No head? No kill,” he snarled, slamming his stein down on the nearest table. Ray winced and turned to glare up at him. “What do you take me for? An idiot?”

            Ray pursed his lips and tried not to shrug. “I may get proof after I complete the spell,” he said carefully.

            “What spell?” Gaston hissed, sitting in one of the bar stools.

            “The one to release the magic on the castle. If I don’t do that, you’ll have more problems on your hands,” Ray grit out, fingers curling tightly into the fabric of the cloak.

            Gaston hummed, leaning back against the bar. The other patrons were watching Ray with glares and narrowed eyes. Suddenly Gaston sat up with a bright smile. “I’ll go with you! See this beast for myself.”

            Ray closed his eyes and pressed his fingers into his temple. “There’s no beast left, just magic. There’s nothing to see.”

            Gaston scowled and Ray yelped when he was suddenly picked up by the collar of his shirt. He blinked at Gaston, scowling that they were now face to face. “Why do I not believe you?” Gaston said, beer breath making Ray’s nose wrinkle.

            “No idea,” Ray huffed, folding his arms and letting his legs swing slightly, “could you put me down?”

            Gaston pursed his lips then dropped Ray who stumbled back slightly when he landed. Scowling at Gaston, Ray fixed his clothes. “I may be of assistance,” a new, hissing voice said behind them.

            Ray and Gaston turned to an old woman who had white hair covering one side of her face and a crooked nose. Heavy black robes draped over her, dragging against the ground. She moved silently into the bar, waving her long, crooked fingers toward each table. Ray’s eyes widened and he looked around rapidly, all of the patrons started to get a dazed look to their eyes before continuing their conversations, eyes glazed over. Even Gaston’s eyes glazed over, jaw going slack.

            “Uh oh,” Ray breathed, head snapping back to the woman who smirked at him. Rotting black teeth wobbled in her mouth. She came to a stop in front of Gaston and tapped the white cane against the ground.

            “Oh? And what can you do for us?” Gaston said, bending at the knees to look into gray-green eyes. The woman laughed slightly, tapping her gnarled cane against the floor.

            “I can show you the beast,” the woman said, her cracking voice making Ray wince.

            “No, nope we don’t need your help,” Ray said, trying to back away before there were two more taps and Gaston hooked his arms around his shoulders and yanked him back.

            “Of course, young lady, we would love your help,” Gaston said sweetly as Ray tried to push him off.

            “What a nice young man,” the woman sighed, slamming her cane hard enough that the boards creaked under her feet. Gaston immediately let Ray go as green light leaked from her robes.

            “Damn witches,” Ray grumbled, brushing himself off and resting his hands on the hilts of his blades.

            The woman sneered at him before pulling a green glowing hand mirror from her robes. “I’ve worked too hard to make that boy suffer, I won’t have you ruining it,” she snapped at him, waving the mirror at him. The metal casing was a shining, plain silver, nothing reflecting in the glass.

            Ray tensed then pulled out both of his knives, freezing when every man in the bar pointed their rifles at him. Gaston raised his fists, scowling as he stared through Ray. Rolling his eyes, he sheathed his blades but didn’t let go. “He was ten, and you were stealing.”

            “He was a brat,” the woman snapped, shaking her head, “Absolutely awful. Kicked me right out into the rain.” She reached up and snapped her fingers. The men all returned to their seats, guns put away, but they were all drooling just a little bit. Gaston bent in half to rest his chin in her palm. “Not like this fella, he knows what’s good for him.”

            Ray shivered and took a careful step back when the woman started petting Gaston’s hair. “That’s because he’s an idiot,” he snorted, holding the hilts of his blades tighter, “And they’re all drunk.”

            “Unlike you, and that boy,” the woman huffed, pushing Gaston’s head away. He stumbled and fell to the floor in a heap, “You both seem to be immune to me.”

            Ray shrugged before smirking. “Years of practice, Ryan’s just a natural,” he said rushing forward and kicking the cane out of place and pulling his blades in the same movement. Just as he had his blades at the woman’s throat, he heard her fingers snap and the men started to move again.

            Gaston had the mirror in hand, on his feet once again. His eyes were wide as the mirror glowed green, Ryan’s voice filling the room as the men started pulling their guns. All of their eyes were still glazed over.

            Ray scowled and glared at the woman who smirked at him, green light slipping from her robes. “Too late,” she hissed before disappearing in a mint puff of smoke.

            “Fuck,” Ray snapped, sheathing his blades and turning to run from the bar. He just managed to dodge Gaston grabbing for him before slamming into the door.

            Pat whinnied at him as he heard Gaston’s booming voice make a speech to the men. He heard their cheers and ground his teeth together as he untied Pat’s reins and slung himself onto her back.

            “Sorry, Pat,” Ray breathed as he snapped the leather and dug his heels into her sides, “We’re going to have to find the fast way up.”

            More townspeople were emerging from their homes with torches with green fire and pitchforks as they raced past. A few tried to grab them, but Ray kicked them off or Pat was moving too quickly. A line of dazed people blocked the road, Ray rapidly looking for a way out.

            Pat snorted and leaned to the side, racing for a high fence. Ray tightened his legs around Pat as she leapt over the fence that was just a foot shorter than Ray. They galloped down the road as rain started to pour from the sky.

            “Fucking great,” Ray said, looking over his shoulder at the growing mob slowly marching after him.

            Once the torch fires were fairly far away in the distance, Ray urged Pat off the path and around trees. He tried to remember where the logging trail Ryan had told him about was, faint trancelike singing following after him.

            “We’ll lay siege to the castle and bring back his head!” Gaston’s voice carried over the other voices and Ray leaned down low, rain pelting them hard. Ray’s and Pat’s hair stuck to their bodies as Ryan’s cape dragged at Ray’s shoulders.

            “Bring your guns, bring your knives. Save your children and your wives!” the people sang in chorus. The slap of their shoes against the soaked earth echoed through the forest.

            He glanced back once they were on the clear path and scowled. He could see the town following him, almost at a run. He snapped the reins and Pat raced up the path toward the castle. The mud and puddles splashed against them, the townspeople’s voices chasing after them.

            They were both breathing hard when they reached the castle gate. Swallowing thickly, he urged Pat through the doors then slipped from the saddle. Pushing hard on the doors, he managed to close them. With some rope, he and Pat brought down the wooden brace with a solid smack before racing into the castle.

            Mud and water exploded from Pat’s hooves as they pounded down hallways and upstairs. “Everyone! Meet in Ryan’s room!” he shouted as they passed rooms. Furniture and dishes alike poked out of rooms and chased after him the best they could.

            “Ray!” Jack gasped as Pat skidded to a halt outside Ryan’s room, “What the hell are you doing?”

            “There’s mud fucking everywhere!” Geoff whined, leaning against Jack, “What the fuck?”

            “Castle’s about to be under attack,” Ray panted, dropping from Pat’s saddle and grabbing the handle of the door, “For fucks-“

            Ray stumbled as the door was yanked open and Ryan growled at him, blinking tiredly. “Ray?” his voice rumbled through him, almost like a purr. He dropped his head onto Ray’s shoulder, pressing his nose into his jaw. “Why are you back so soon?”

            Ray sighed and wrapped his arms around Ryan’s neck. “Jack, Geoff, fortify the castle, we’ve got a long night ahead of us,” he said as he pushed Ryan back into his room, “Pat, come on!”

            Geoff and Jack shared worried looks before herding the other servants to the front door. Ryan’s brow furrowed as Ray made him sit on his bed before rushing over to Pat and digging through his saddle bags.

            “Ray? What’s going on? Fortify the castle against what?” he said, standing and trying to peer over Ray’s shoulder as he dug around in the leather bags, cursing under his breath.

            “The village is under the influence of the witch that cursed you,” Ray said, pulling out a vile of strange purple goop and squinting at the small label, “They’re heading up here right now to murder you.”

            Ryan’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. “W-what?! How?”

            “The witch,” Ray sighed, pocketing the vile before digging around for another, “She’s been watching us, apparently.”

            Ryan growled and grabbed Ray’s shoulders gently, pulling him closer and looking him over. “She didn’t hurt you, did she?”

            Ray smiled softly and pressed his forehead against Ryan’s. “I’m fine, and this isn’t the time to be cute. I think I have everything to do the worst case scenario. I need you and the others to hold the village off while I do this.”

            Ryan smiled back and hugged him tightly before letting him go and racing from the room in only his bed shirt. Ray shook his head before turning back to Pat and digging around for the other ingredients he needed.

 

* * *

 

            Ryan stalked through the castle with a deep growl rumbling through his body. He vaguely listened to Jack and Geoff rattle on about their defenses. He flinched when he heard the sound of a log slamming into the wooden gate.

            Growling, he snapped his head toward the clock and candle stick. “You two, tell the others to act like furniture at the front doors.”

            “You’ve got it boss!” Geoff said, saluting Ryan before pulling Jack away.

            Ryan snorted and stayed to the shadows. As the servants got into position, he listened as the gate cracked and broke. They all flinched when the log started slamming into the main castle doors.

            Ryan took a deep breath and stayed back as the men stumbled into the castle. The servants held position as the men slowly edged into the room. Torches and axes grasped tight in their hands. Once everyone was in the lobby, poking at the furniture, Ryan burst from the shadows. “Now!” he roared.

            The furniture launched at the men. Ryan grinned as the men struggled with the sentient furniture. Some ran with terrified shrieks. With another roar, a few more fled.

            Jack and Geoff were double teaming a short man with a big nose, tricking him into tripping into other servants. Michael slammed his doors against people’s skulls, knocking a few out or throwing them into someone else. Jeremy was scooping men up when they started ganging up on someone and throwing them around. From the ceiling, Lindsey, her tea cups, and other cookware started pouring boiling hot water onto anyone who got too close to the walls.

            Ryan smirked, snarling when someone managed to get up the stairs. He swiped his claws a few times. He didn’t have to hurt anyone until one of the men whose eyes were glittering green, was persistent. He jumped back from Ryan’s false swipes before rushing forward again.

            With a low growl, he stopped holding back and slammed his claws into the man’s rib. The smell of blood made everyone pause for only a few seconds. Ryan stood frozen, blood dripping from his claws. The man lay on the ground in a bloody lump and Ryan swallowed thickly.

            He glanced up and scowled when his eyes met the glazed over blue eyes of a tall muscular man with tied back black hair. He was gritting his teeth, gripping his rifle tightly. He stormed toward Ryan, muttering under his breath. With a snarl, Ryan leapt at the man and knocked the gun away.

 

* * *

 

            Ray frowned down at the bowl of glop in front of him. The spell had said that he should be getting a purple liquid, but since he was substituting things, he would work with the golden slop he had made.

            Taking a deep breath, he pulled out Tina’s letter and carefully began to stumble through the words. He squinted at the paper as the bowl started to glow. He winced when the final Latin words tumbled from his lips and a bright flash filled the room.

            Blinking hard as Pat whinnied, he frowned at the glowing, golden goop before flinching when he heard something shatter. Looking up, he watched the rose fall to the table, brown and withering, before disappearing into dust. The pieces of the glass cover littered the ground, sparkling faintly as the rain poured into the room from the open balcony.

            Swallowing hard, Ray rushed to read the rest of the note before grabbing the bowl and running from the room, Pat at his heels. He followed the sounds of fighting to the front lobby where the servants were chasing townsmen from the castle while Ryan and Gaston snarled at each other on the stairs.

            Gaston’s clothes were shredded, little beads of blood resting on the exposed skin. Ryan’s claws and small parts of his fur were soaked in blood. Ray spared a glance at the corpse lounging on the stairs in a dark puddle of red before focusing on Ryan.

            There was only one step left before they were completely free minus some side effects they could all live with. He just couldn’t miss.

            With a sharp whistle, Pat leaped past him and slammed her hooves between Gaston and Ryan. She chased after Gaston while Ryan looked up at Ray with wide eyes. With a shaky smile, Ray threw the glop onto Ryan’s head and a pulse of magic shot through the castle.

            The men froze as the furniture they had been fighting had gold powder surround them before they turned into living people. Ryan roared in pain as Ray dropped the glittering bowl and rushed to his side. Ryan tried to push the smoking goop off of him, but he only succeeded in spreading the sticky slop around.

            Pat whined and galloped over to them. Another pulse of magic shot through the castle as Ryan suddenly went limp, Ray and Pat struggling to hold him up. Ray watched, holding his breath, as he felt Ryan’s body shift and change under his fingers. He had to look away, squinting. Bright beams of light burst from Ryan’s body.

            Gaston, scowling harshly, scrambled to his feet and raced for his gun. Ray just caught the movement out of the corner of his watering eyes and, without thinking, pulled one of his knives and threw the blade straight into Gaston’s skull. He dropped to the ground with blood and brains slowly seeping into his hair.

            A shiver shot down Ray’s spine, but he focused on Ryan instead as the light faded away. He was significantly smaller now, although, he could probably tower over Ray by a head. Fur shifted to pale skin and blond hair shortened on top of his head. The horns retracted as his haunches turned into human feet. Ray winced and wobbled when Ryan’s full weight started to rest on him, the light fading completely and the magic dissipating.

            Pat whined and pawed at the ground, trying to hook Ryan’s limp arm over her neck. Still in only an oversized white shirt, a human hung between them. Ray frowned when Ryan started to groan, his feet weakly trying to stabilize under him.

            “Rye?” Ray said softly, jerking when Ryan lost his footing on the step, nearly sending them to the ground.

            “Ray! Master Ryan!” Jack’s voice shouted before a large man with a curly beard and kind eyes ran up the stairs to them. The townspeople looked on in confused awe as Ray sank to the ground, Ryan half in his lap.

            “Hey Jack,” Ray smiled sheepishly up at Jack who frowned worriedly at them. Ryan groaned again, turning and blinking bright blue eyes up at Ray.

            “Everything hurts,” Ryan croaked, squinted at Ray, searching his eyes, “What the fuck happened?”

            “I can’t imagine turning into your human form would be painless after so long,” Ray chuckled, carefully running his fingers through Ryan’s hair, “And might I add, you are hot as fuck.”

            Ryan’s brow furrowed before he slowly raised up his shaking hands with a wince. He stared at large palms and long fleshy fingers for a moment before his eyes widened. He looked at Ray who smiled and nodded.

            With some help from Jack and Ray, Ryan sat up and patted his legs, arms, and torso. “I’m human,” he breathed before looking up at Jack who was smiling softly at him, “You’re human!”

            “Everyone is human!” Geoff laughed from the bottom of the stairs, a curly mustache a mess on his face. He had one of the townsmen in a headlock.

            Ryan laughed and raked his fingers through his hair. Ray smiled and gently touched his shoulder. “There is one down side. You can turn back into the beast or furniture depending on how emotional you are or by choice.”

            Jack sighed as Geoff and Gavin, distantly, started to complain. Ryan just blinked at Ray before grinning and cupping his cheeks. “I think I’m okay with that,” he said softly, pressing their foreheads together.

            Ray felt his blush grow hot under Ryan’s warm fingers, looking between each other’s eyes. “Can I-“ Ryan started, but Ray surged forward and kissed him first.

            Ryan laughed quietly before letting his eyes fall shut and kissing Ray back. His servants cheered behind them, Jack’s fond, but exasperated sigh beside them. When they parted to breath, Pat snorted and stuck her head between them.

            “Oh come on!” Ryan laughed, petting her muzzle, “You still don’t like me?”

            Ray laughed and held onto one of Ryan’s hands. His hands weren’t massive anymore. Still bigger than Ray’s, but they didn’t dwarf him.

            “Should have had you killed when I had the chance.”

            Ray tensed and was on his feet in a second, hand on his remaining knife. The woman stood over Gaston, clicking her tongue as she looked over the knife in his skull. Jack gasped and tripped over the steps trying to get away as Ryan struggled to stand.

            “Look at this mess!” the woman sighed, tapping her cane against the ground. The townsmen suddenly tensed up and pointed their weapons at the servants. “Should have made sure you never found this place.”

            Ray scowled as Ryan, with Pat’s help, managed to get to his feet. He looked at the woman and froze. “ _You_!” he snarled before Ray could come up with a witty reply.

            Ray, Jack, and the rest of the servants looked at Ryan in surprise. He never yelled, at least, Ray never remembered hearing him yell. Jack winced and tried to scoot away as Ryan let go of Pat’s neck and, after a wobbly moment, stormed down the stairs.

            “Oh no, Ryan!” Ray reached out to stop him, but Pat snagged his shirt and Jack caught his hand.

            “You don’t want to be in the middle of that,” Jack whispered, squeezing Ray’s hand.

            Ray frowned and glanced at the other servants who were either backing away or hiding behind each other. Michael stood proudly in front of Gavin, glass shattered around them, as Ryan’s eyes started to glow gold faintly.

            “Ah, dearie,” the woman said sweetly with a smirk, “How have you liked your curse?”

            Ryan’s hands shook as his fingers and palm grew longer and wider. The tip of his horns started to poke through his hair. “You,” he hissed, glaring at the woman.

            “Me,” the woman said with a chuckle, standing up as straight as she could with a hunchback.

            A deafening roar ripped from Ryan’s throat and with a bright, white flash of light, the beast towered over the woman, all snarls and teeth in her face. She didn’t even flinch.

            “Didn’t that little hunter of yours tell you?” the woman said with a chuckle, “This is my magic, and you can’t hurt me with my magic.”

            “Actually,” Ray said, coughing into his hand when both Ryan and the woman snapped their heads to look at him, “Since I was the one who made the spell to change your magic that no longer applies.”

            The woman narrowed her eyes as Ryan grinned. Before she could protest, he had her in his massive paws. “No!” she shrieked before long, claws pierced her stomach.

            Ray winced, but didn’t look away like the others. The townsmen, snapped free from the woman’s magic, widened their eyes in horror, most fleeing the castle. The rest were herded out by the servants who didn’t want to look.

            Only blood and pieces of muscle and organs remained of the witch when Ryan finally calmed down. His white shirt was dripping, fur coated in blood. He was breathing hard, little growls and snarls slipping from his throat.

            Ray carefully went down the stairs, waving off Jack and Pat. Ryan was looking at his hands as they shook. “Hey, come on, it’ll hurt less changing back this time,” Ray said softly as he ran his fingers through clean fur on Ryan’s back.

            Ryan’s head snapped up, his blue eyes wet. With a distant nod, he started to shrink and sink to the ground. Ray went down with him, whistling for Pat. Kneeling in the growing pool of blood, Ray wrapped his arms around a human Ryan, struggling to reach a blanket he had stored in Pat’s saddle.

            Once the heavy black blanket was in hand, he wrapped the fabric around Ryan and wiped his skin clean with a corner. “We’re a mess,” Ryan laughed weakly, leaning heavily against Ray.

            “Well, you are,” Ray smiled, kissing Ryan’s temple when the blood was cleared away, “My clothes are hexed to stay clean. Same with the blanket”

            Ryan snorted and laughed weekly, pressing his face into the crook of Ray’s neck. “Of course they are,” he said and Ray smiled as the servants started to celebrate around them.

 

* * *

 

            “So how are you, dad?” Ray said, the crow on his arm carefully lifting each foot to keep stray strands of fabric from sticking to her claws and shifting from side to side, “Anything exciting?”

            The crow’s beak opened and instead of a caw, a rough gravel voice slipped free. “Nothing like your story, I’m afraid.”

            Ray chuckled and gently pet the crow’s head. “There’s got to be something, unless you’ve been stuck doing paperwork again.”

            “Mainly just paper work,” Ray’s father laughed lightly, the crow leaning into Ray’s fingers, “I’m not as young as I used to be and the guild runs differently now.” Ray nodded, opening his mouth when the crow’s head snapped to the side. “Who’s that?”

            Ray blinked at Ryan who stared at them with wide eyes. A heavy, royal blue long coat rested on his shoulders, the silver buttons shining in the sun. Black, knee height boots were shining with snow and mud, thick black slacks shoved down into them for extra warmth. A sword hung from Ryan’s hip, the tip nearly dragging across the ground. The hilt had a sharp metal point and leather binding. White gloves covered his hands, one of which was raised awkwardly towards Ray’s shoulder.

            “Oh, dad, this is Ryan,” Ray said with a grin.

            The crow tilted her head and shrieked at Ryan before they could hear his father laugh. Ryan forced an awkward smile and gave a small wave, quickly folding his hands behind his back and standing taller.

            “Hello, Master Narvaez, it’s good to meet you,” Ryan pushed out, eyeing the bird nervously.

            “Ah, so you were the beast,” Narvaez said, making Ryan wince, “Oops, sorry.”

            “It’s fine,” Ryan said, hesitantly coming to stand beside Ray who reached up and rubbed his back gently. The crow stared at him with unsettling, glowing red eyes.

            “Well, I’m glad Ray was able to help you,” Narvaez said, something crashing in the background leading to an argument between Michael and Gavin. Lindsey snapped at them while Geoff, Jack, and Jeremy watched on in vague amusement. “All of you, I’m sure you’re heading to the nearest guild?”

            “That’s the plan,” Ray sighed, shaking his head at Michael and Gavin, “Some of them want to be hunters and I’m not used to going around with such a big group.”

            “We could always use more hunters,” Narvaez hummed before the crow nodded, “Alright, what’s the closest guild to you?”

            Ray frowned and his eyes rolled up for a moment. “We were heading for Frankfurt, but I didn’t think you were there.”

            “I’m not,” Narvaez said, the crow cawing at them once again before he continued, “But I’ll meet you there. Anything to get out of paperwork for a while.”

            Ray snorted and Ryan smiled softly. Nerves bubbled in his stomach, but he ignored them for the moment. Frankfurt was still a couple of days ride from where they were. He’d have plenty of time to plan out how to even speak with Ray’s father.

            “Sounds good,” Ray said, raising an eyebrow when the crow started to hop down his arm toward Ryan.

            “Great, now, can I speak with Ryan for a moment?” Narvaez said, the crow cooing softly, “Nothing bad, I promise.”

            “Uh, sure,” Ray said, grabbing Ryan’s arm and positioning him before letting the crow hop onto his arm.

            Ryan gave him a panicked look and Ray laughed lightly, leaning up to kiss his cheek before running over to help the others clean up the mess Michael and Gavin had made. The two idiots were currently wrestling in the snow.

            Swallowing hard, Ryan turned back to the crow and forced a crooked smile. The crow tilted her head at him, almost smiling. “To answer your question from when you and Pat were racing in the forest, yes. I do have some connection with Pat.”

            Ryan froze and felt the color drain from his face. Narvaez laughed as Ryan’s arm began to shake. He saw them when he was the beast. When they were on the road, when they kissed. He was fairly certain Pat kept an eye on them when they were alone too. Oh, the things he had said. As suddenly as the color left his face, his cheeks began to heat then his ears.

            “Don’t worry, I don’t see everything all of the time, just when Pat’s worried about him,” Narvaez said which made Ryan blush more. Pat was always worried about the two of them being together. “And I mean, really worried. She does like you, you know.”

            Ryan swallowed down a grumble and nodded. “She stopped trying to kick me at least.”

            As Narvaez laughed again and Ryan looked over at the others, Lindsey was trying to saddle the horses once again while Ray and Geoff looked over the map.

            “Through that connection,” Narvaez said, making Ryan snap his eyes back to the crow on his arm, “I saw how much you care about Ray. I know you won’t let anything hurt him and I’m relieved he’s finally found a partner to go on hunts with him.”

            Ryan blinked slowly before glancing at Ray. Smiling softly he nodded and stood a bit taller. “I’d do anything to keep him from being hurt.”

            “Even from yourself?” Narvaez said, startling Ryan. The crow shrieked at him again as he frowned.

            “As much as I can,” Ryan said softly, hesitantly reaching up to pet the crow’s head like he had seen Ray do, “I am still part monster and I’ve lost a lot of time in the world. I won’t willingly hurt him.”

            The crow was silent, mouth hanging open and leaning into Ryan’s fingers. Ryan spared another glance at Ray who was watching them with a worried frown, Pat nipping at his hair. Narvaez cleared his throat and Ryan looked back at the bird.

            “You’re a good man, Ryan, but be warned. If you do hurt my boy, I will end you.” Narvaez’s voice was dark and harsh. A shiver shot down Ryan’s spine as the crow lifted off of his arm and flew over to Ray. He watched them talk for a moment before the crow took to the skies with one last caw.

            Swallowing hard, Ryan shook his head and dropped his arm to the side. Ray smiled at him and hugged him tightly once he was close enough. “Ignore dad, he’s just protective of the family.”

            “I got that,” Ryan croaked, giving Ray a sheepish smile, “I can’t tell if he likes me or not.”

            “You wouldn’t be alive to question that if he didn’t like you,” Ray chuckled, leaning up to kiss Ryan’s cheek again before heading over to Pat, “Now come on, we’ve got to get moving.”

            With a chuckle, Ryan caught Ray around his waist and pulled him into a gentle kiss. As Ray melted against him, he raised a hand to block Pat’s glare. Just the idea that Narvaez could see them unsettled him. Knowing that he actually could was even worse.

            “What was that for?” Ray breathed, giving Ryan a dazed smile when they parted.

            “Because I could.” Ryan shrugged and nuzzled his nose into Ray’s cheek, ignoring Lindsey and Jeremy fake gagging behind them. “And because I might not be able to when we see your father.”

            Ray rolled his eyes and kissed Ryan once more before pushing him toward his horse. “Just get on your horse,” he said with a fond smirk.

            Ryan laughed and pulled himself up onto the white stallion they had bought a few towns back. Ray shook his head and pulled himself onto Pat, leading them down the road once more.


	27. Halloween Costumes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew couldn't tell if Ryan was nervous or excited for the costume party Gavin was dragging the to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is super late for Halloween, but it's here! Tada?
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Here's the references I used for Ray and Ryan's costumes:  
> Ryan:   
> Mask:   
> http://www.spirithalloween.com/product/steampunk-skull-mask/133836.uts?currentIndex=24&keyword=steampunk&thumbnailIndex=44&Search=Find+It  
> Face paint:   
> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/00/6c/29/006c299d25009709dfaf3f52f5964a70.jpg  
> Jacket: https://d2fzf9bbqh0om5.cloudfront.net/images/226725/search/van_helsing_steampunk_victorian_gothic_mens_costume_trench_coat_coats_4.jpg?1424343260  
> Arm:  
> http://img13.deviantart.net/c5d2/i/2011/241/e/e/japanese_twist_steampunk_arm_by_skinz_n_hydez-d489mz7.jpg  
> Boots:  
> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b2/1d/c2/b21dc2eef2927d9583f2ae4d582a8c28.jpg
> 
> Ray:  
> Hat:  
> http://www.spirithalloween.com/product/steampunk-mini-top-hat/135450.uts?currentIndex=168&keyword=hats&thumbnailIndex=169&Search=Find+It  
> Jacket:  
> http://static.crazyinlove.es/15284-thickbox/steampunk-faux-leather-jacket.jpg  
> Goggles:  
> http://img02.deviantart.net/7bae/i/2012/342/a/0/steampunk_goggles_number_2_by_ambassadormann-d2411ef.jpg  
> Glasses:  
> https://www.steampunkgoggles.com/wp-content/uploads/gold-yellow-folded-clean.jpg  
> Belt:  
> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c0/c1/a9/c0c1a98faafa2d378822bd79ab6ebb88.jpg  
> Gun:  
> http://www.foundmyself.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21106/complete.jpg  
> Boots:  
> http://www.fenvy.com/media/catalog/product/EI-181SILAS.jpg  
> Legs:   
> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/42/75/d3/4275d3be71c8700ef8736bd5aa473dce.jpg  
> Gloves:   
> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/5f/ec/c3/5fecc384b5a364d9499649bb0be9652d.jpg

“Geeeeooooff!” Gavin whined as he draped himself across Geoff’s lap, “Please?”

Geoff sighed, fingers pressing against the bridge of his nose. Jack was snickering from beside him as Jeremy and Michael watched from the kitchen with baited breath. Ray and Ryan lounged against the other couch, Ray leaning against Ryan as he played on his bright pink DS. Ryan was sitting up straight and stiff, eyes drilling into Geoff’s skull.

“Why the fuck do you want us to go with you? Just dag Michael and Jeremy,” Geoff said, glaring down at Gavin before pushing him onto the floor.

Gavin puffed as he landed on his back before shooting upright. “I want all of us to go! It’ll be like trick-or-treating!”

“What?” Geoff scowled, frowning when Jack squeezed his arm.

“We go, have some bevs and fun, then we shoot up the joint, steal what we can and leave!” Gavin said smiling wickedly, the gold rimmed sunglasses always nestled in his hair falling onto his nose.

They all jumped when a grunt none of them recognized came from the other couch. “Rye!” Ray groaned, snapping his DS closed as Ryan shook his shoulders.

All of them gave Ryan strange looks as he rapidly starting to sign at Ray. Geoff’s brow furrowed before he looked back at Gavin who was already giving him a kicked puppy look. With a sigh, he fell back against the couch and folded his arms. “Fine,”

“Yes!” Gavin cheered, leaping to his feet. A second later, Jeremy was tackling him to the ground again as Michael came over with a laugh.

“It’ll be fun!” Jack said, bumping Geoff’s shoulder with her own, “Even Ryan looks excited.”

“You have no idea,” Ray said with a tired smile as Ryan gave him a bright eyed look.

Geoff rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Whatever, just no snakes!”

“You’re just bitter about the snake prank,” Michael snorted, hands in the pockets of the brown jacket as he stood over Jeremy and Gavin wrestling on the floor.

“I have a right!” Geoff huffed, pouting slightly.

“It was one time three years ago,” Jack sighed, rolling her eyes as she stood.

“One time too many!” Geoff snapped, tensing when Jack grabbed his arm, “What are you doing?”

“We’re going shopping,” Jack said, yanking Geoff to his feet, “We both need costumes and only a week to get them.”

Gavin gasped from the floor and stumbled to his feet, dragging Jeremy up with him. “Come on boi’s!” he said as he hooked his arm with Michael’s before dragging both Jeremy and Michael out the door.

Jack dragged a whining Geoff behind her. The door closed with a loud click as Ryan hopped to his feet, yanking his black skull mask off. Ray laughed lightly as he was scooped up into familiar arms and carried to their room.

Jack and Geoff returned first, Geoff grumbling as he carted heavy bags into the penthouse. Jack had insisted on making some of the pieces for their costumes so Geoff had been stuck forking over the money for expensive fabrics and accessories.

“Take them to my room,” Jack said as she dropped herself onto the couch and scooped up Gavin’s laptop from the side table, “I need to look up patterns.”

With a huff, Geoff waddled over to her room, struggling to even grab the doorknob before disappearing inside. Jack smirked to herself as she glanced through Google images for careful outlines of a dress, scowling at her options.

She heard the creak of one of the bedroom doors and glanced up to see Ray shuffle into the room. He wasn’t wearing pants, just old boxers. He was zipping up his ratty, purple hoodie halfway, bare chest lighter than the rest of his skin.

Jack raised an eyebrow as he nodded to her before going into the kitchen. “I thought you two didn’t have sex in the penthouse,” Jack said, watching Ray over the back of the couch, the laptop set beside her.

“We don’t,” Ray snorted as he opened the fridge and pulled out a diet coke and red bull, “Ryan keeps making me try shit on.”

“Costumes?” Jack said, raising a perfect red eyebrow, “I didn’t think he was interested. He looked so tense when Gavin brought it up.”

Ray gave Jack a blank stare as he set the cans on the breakfast bar. Jack frowned when only Geoff dropping something in her room disturbed the silence. “What?” she said, narrowing her eyes when Ray pursed his lips.

“I forget that you guys don’t know Ryan that well,” Ray said eventually, snapping the tab on the Red Bull and taking a sip.

Jack furrowed her brow and tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean? It’s a little hard to know him when he doesn’t talk.”

“It’s all in his eyes,” Ray said with a head shake and chuckle, “He’s excited as fuck for this.”

Jack’s eyes went wide as Geoff tumbled into the hallway panting. “Why the fuck is all of that shit so heavy?” he grumbled as he dragged himself toward the couch. He did a double take when he saw Ray standing in the kitchen door, still sipping at his Red Bull, the Diet Coke in his free hand. “What the fuck?!”

Jack rolled her eyes as Ray struggled not to grin. He nodded to them both before walking back into his and Ryan’s room. Geoff’s jaw dropped, head snapping to look at Jack when the door closed. “Close your mouth and sit down, we have to plan out our outfits,” Jack said, grabbing Geoff’s arm and dragging him down beside her.

Gavin burst into the apartment about an hour later, Michael and Jeremy trailing after him with tired eyes and dragging feet. With a giggle, Gavin ran through the apartment and into their room, only three bags in his arms.

“So, how was Gavin?” Geoff said, smirking as Michael dropped onto the other couch, Jeremy collapsing on top of him.

“Hyper,” Michael said, voice muffled by the couch.

“He’s _too_ excited for this,” Jeremy sighed, laughing lightly as he ran his fingers through his currently bright red hair.

“We didn’t even get a fucking say!” Michael groaned, flailing his arms the best he could without throwing Jeremy off or getting up.

Geoff and Jack shared smiles and quiet laughs before Jack looked back at the pattern she wanted to do. The instructions went on for some time and Geoff had stopped paying attention ten minutes into being forced to read them.

“Hey, where’s Ray and Ryan? Are they getting costumes too?” Jeremy said after a brief silence.

“They’re in their room,” Jack said without looking up from the computer.

“Having sex!” Geoff’s voice cracked as he looked nervously over at their door. There hadn’t been a peep from their room since Ray went back in.

“No, apparently Ryan’s making them costumes and making Ray try them on repeatedly,” Jack sighed, slapping Geoff’s arm.

“Seriously?” Jeremy said, yelping when Michael started to move.

“Ryan? Making the costumes?” Michael said, pushing himself up on his hands. Jeremy rolled off him slightly.

“Apparently,” Jack said with a shrug, “I was surprised too, although apparently it’s fairly obvious if you ask Ray.”

“Of course it’s fucking obvious to him,” Michael snorted as he twisted around and wrapped his arms around Jeremy, pulling his back to his chest, “They’ve been together for fucking ever.”

“Do we even know how they met?” Jeremy said as he snuggled back against Michael, folding his arm under his head.

“Nope,” Geoff said as he stood and walked over to the breakfast bar. On the side facing the living room was a wine rack that held all of his favorite booze. “I knew Ryan before he met Ray, but that was only for one job and we only met briefly.”

“I knew Ray,” Michael said as he pressed his nose into the back of Jeremy’s neck, “Before that fucking asshole. We did a few jobs together.”

“Gavin couldn’t dig anything up either,” Jack said, rereading the same line for the fourth time, “After Geoff met Ryan and you and Ray separated, they disappeared. The next time anyone heard from them, they were together and seemed to have been for some time.”

Jeremy frowned and his eyes glazed over for a moment. “Why did they decide to stay?” he said slowly, looking at Jack who was staring at him over the top of the laptop, “I mean, I remember them being off and on when I got here.”

“Don’t know, they just did,” Geoff said, putting a glass bottle of whiskey away before picking up his glass, “None of us get them.”

Jeremy huffed then shrugged, closing his eyes. Michael chuckled and squeezed him gently. Jack gave them a soft smile before rereading the same instruction over again. Geoff shook his head, sipping at his whiskey. He glanced at Ray and Ryan’s door before sighing.

Jack spent the days before Halloween sewing and cursing as she stabbed herself multiple times with needles. Eventually Geoff ordered a simple sewing machine and made her use that instead.

Whenever Gavin was asked what his costume was going to be the the only response he would give was a goofy grin. When Michael or Jeremy were asked, their faces would turn red. Michael would start pouting or scowling while Jeremy hid his face in his hands.

Ryan disappeared completely. Ray would sometimes emerge from their room to grab large packages or food. For the most part, they both spent their time in their room. Ray didn’t walk out in his underwear again, thankfully for Geoff’s sanity.

The day of their night out, Michael, Jeremy, and Gavin emerged from their room in costume first. Gavin bounced into the room the best he could in stiff Mary Jane shoes. His white tights already had a rip running the length of the side. His blue dress was slightly too big, the black band that was supposed to be around his middle was actually around his waist. He still had his gold chain around his neck and sunglasses resting in his hair.

Michael walked briskly into the living room and sat next to Gavin. He folded his arms tightly, his store bought green dress a little too tight. He folded his legs neatly and grinned when Gavin leaned against him.

Jeremy shuffled into the room, pulling at the bottom of the red dress that only went halfway down his thigh. He awkwardly sat on Gavin’s other side, legs pressed together. His cheeks were dusted pink as he tried to get comfortable.

“We look top!” Gavin said, puffing out his chest.

“You’re fine, Lil’J,” Michael chuckled, reaching over Gavin to squeeze Jeremy’s shoulder.

“Listen,” Jeremy grumbled, leaning against Gavin’s side, “I’m new to dresses okay?”

“I know,” Michael laughed as Gavin hugged Jeremy tightly, “Gotta admit they’re comfy as fuck though.”

“Oh definitely,” Jeremy said with a snort, hugging Gavin back, “I just wish they’d fit right.”

“The store only had these!” Gavin whined, bumping his knee with Jeremy’s.

“We know Gavvy,” Michael snorted, ruffling Gavin’s hair and making his sunglasses fall into his face.

Jeremy looked up when he heard a door creak open as Michael and Gavin started to argue. He smiled when he turned and saw Jack sway into the room. “Looking good Jack.”

“Thank you,” Jack said as she ran her hand over the curve of her wide hips. The red dress was tight, fitting her just right. The neck was low, leading to a point where black buttons on either side of the point went down to her stomach. The sides of the neck were folded back, velvety black labels bright against the red. A black, silk short scarf was tied carefully around her neck, the ends tossed over her shoulder. A black fedora sat carefully on her long, curly red hair. The dress had short sleeves that only covered her shoulders.

A small black purse hung from her shoulder from thin black string. A short knife glinted in the light from the holster sewed to the back of the purse. Fishnets covered her legs, leading to black wedges with leather flowers on the toes.

Her hips swayed as she walked over to the other couch and gracefully sat down. “Geoff’ll be out in a moment, he’s struggling with his tie and won’t let me help him.”

As Jeremy nodded, Michael and Gavin paused mid-argument and looked at Jack with dropped jaws. Michael wolf-whistled and grinned. “Looking good Jack!”

“You made that!” Gavin gasped, hopping up and rushing to sit next to Jack.

Jack laughed lightly and started explaining making the dress to Gavin. Geoff shuffled into the room a moment later, black tie with red lining hanging undone from his neck. The collar of his white button down stood straight up, the tan fedora on his head crooked. “Need a hand?” Jeremy said, smiling when Geoff scowled at him.

“Maybe,” Geoff grumbled, folding his arms. A black leather gun holster hung from his side. His black slacks were a bit too long, bunching up on top of the saddle shoes on his feet.

“Seriously? How do you not know how to tie a tie?” Michael said as he stood and grabbed the silk fabric, “You wear suits all of the time.”

“Their clip on’s,” Geoff mumbled almost too quietly. Michael gave him a confused look, but Jeremy managed to hear him.

“Oh my fucking god,” Jeremy laughed, falling back onto the couch.

“I never learned! Shut up!” Geoff’s voice squeaked as he swatted at Jeremy. He gasped and froze when Michael pulled the tie too tightly.

“Hold still before I accidentally choke you,” Michael said with a smirk. Geoff glared at him until his tie as done. Even then, he glared at him all the way to the breakfast bar to pour himself a drink.

Michael laughed and sat down next to Jeremy again. “Now we just need Ray and Ryan,” he said as he folded his arms, careful not to rip the dress, “Where are they?”

“Don’t know,” Jeremy shrugged, looking at their door. She opened her mouth to speak again when the door creaked open.

The crew froze, jaws dropped, as Ray and Ryan stepped out of their room. Ray smirked at them, folding his arms over his chest. A back top hat that had thin white stripes sat on his head. Silver and gold gears and flowers covered the sides of the hat, interlocked and overlapping one another. Brown tinted round glasses with silver frames rested on his nose. Hanging from his neck were a pair of goggles with a cherry wood base, brown tinted glass, and silver metal work around the sides.

A dark purple, leather jacket with a dusting of silver along the seams went up to his jaw. A silver zipper tapped against the goggles, large silver buttons went down the jacket, following the zipper which stopped at his stomach. The bottom of the jacket didn’t meet in the middle. A black strap ran across his chest; a cherry wood and silver embellished sniper rifle hung from his back. The rifle looked just like his normal pink gun, but the base was made out of cherry wood and the barrel and butt were silver. Black, fingerless gloves were on his hands, purple leather bands running across his knuckles and from his pinky to his wrist. A silver circle was in the center of the band over the center of his hand. Thin silver chain stretched from the circle to the edges of the gloves.

From his hips hung a black belt with pouches on the right side and bullets on the left. The belt lead down into two straps wrapped around his thighs, more bullets on the left and another, larger, pouch on the right. His legs shined silver, a multitude of silver plates covering his legs and leading down into knee high black books. Along the outside of the boots were small, purple leather pouches with silver buttons. The toe and heel were the same color, various straps and silver buckles crossed over the boots in random places.

“Sup?” Ray said as he walked over to the others, the metal pants not giving him any trouble or even making a sound.

He sat in the only arm chair, resting his ankle on his knee and smirking at the others. They all blinked at him before looking over at Ryan who had followed Ray and sat on the arm of the chair.

Ryan’s face was covered by a different skull mask than what they were used to. This one covered his entire head except for his nose, mouth, and jaw. There was silver mesh over the smaller eye holes. Piping ran from the bridge of his nose to the back of the mask, connecting to random sets of gears. A few random puzzle pieces littered the mask. Detailed face paint covered the rest of his face and most of his neck. His nose was mostly black except for thin slivers of white and silver for bone. His lips were covered in teeth that lead up into his cheek bones. Gears and support beams covered the empty space of his cheeks. From what could be seen of his neck, vertebra disappeared under his jacket, more support beams and gears filling the rest of the space.

His jacket was mainly black with his left shoulder blue like his usual leather jacket. His right shoulder and arm was covered with a complicated robotic arm. The arm was mainly dark brown leather with silver accents. He could easily fold his arms under all of the layered pieces of leather. Part of the arm closest to his face was flipped up like a guard. The left arm was in the normal jacket sleeve. The chest of the jacket had a brown leather piece with black straps and silver buckles going across his chest. A series of brown leather belts wrapped around his waist, throwing knives with plain silver handles except for the small gear at the butt of the blades. The jacket went down to just above his knees.

His pants were the same black fabric of the jacket, covered in pockets and pouches melting into the fabric. They lead down into half-calf height boots that had an inch of tread and complicated brown leather straps and silver buckles wrapping around them.

“What the fuck!” Michael managed once they had finally taken in their costumes.

“You made those?!” Gavin gasped, eyes wide and jaw still dropped.

Jack stared at them for a long moment before looking down at her dress. She was still rather proud of herself, but holy fuck. She needed to ask Ryan for some pointers.

Jeremy and Geoff were struck speechless, Geoff nearly dropping his shot glass as Ray laughed lightly and Ryan shrugged.

“Rye’s been dying to finish my costume for ages,” Ray said, pulling at the metal plating on his legs, “This was just the motivation he’s been needing.”

“Just yours?” Jeremy managed to croak as Gavin stood and tried to look at Ryan’s costume without getting too close.

“Yeah, he’s had his for fucking ever,” Ray snorted, folding his arms and leaning back. Ryan held his leather covered arm for Gavin to see. “He just hasn’t had a reason to wear it. We rarely go out for Halloween.”

The crew blinked at them as Gavin looked over Ryan’s arm with wide, fascinated eyes. “Holy fuck,” Geoff said before taking his shot and slapping the glass down against the counter, “Can you move in that shit?”

“Perfectly,” Ray nodded, standing and pulling his snipper around, “And this works.”

“Perfect, let’s fucking go,” Geoff laughed as he headed for the door.

Jack shook her head and stood, making sure to meet Ryan’s eyes. “We have a lot to discuss,” she said, glancing at Ray when Ryan started to sign at her.

“He says he’d be happy to help, you did well though,” Ray said, smiling when Jack smiled proudly and walked toward the door.

“Come on Micoo! Lil’J!” Gavin said as he dragged a laughing Jeremy and Michael after him.

Ray smiled at Ryan who gave him a bright smile back. His real teeth shined from behind his make-up ones. “Watch yourself Rye,” he said as he tangled his fingers with Ryan’s free hand, “They’ll be able to see you smile now.”

Ryan shrugged and pressed his arm against Ray’s shoulder. Ray rolled his eyes and tried to bump Ryan’s hip, but hit his legs instead. “Okay listen,” Ray huffed as they walked out of the penthouse, “You don’t need to be taller.”

Luckily, the rest of the crew was too far ahead to hear Ryan laugh.


	28. Pizza and Murder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray hated his scooter, he hated his itchy uniform with the pizza logo peeling off, he hated the hat that made his head sweat, and he especially hated when someone ordered pizza on the shitty side of town. Every time, without fail he, on his tiny, slow ass pizza scooter, would get mugged. When he got back to work to he’d get the stab wound wrapped up (he had only been stabbed once, maybe twice) and get chewed out by his boss for losing another night's payment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off of this post: http://calicokitkat.tumblr.com/post/154706504639/remember-the-mole-haywoodmorelikegaywood
> 
> Thank you for reading!

           Ray hated his scooter, he hated his itchy uniform with the pizza logo peeling off, he hated the hat that made his head sweat, and he especially hated when someone ordered pizza on the shitty side of town. Every time, without fail he, on his tiny, slow ass pizza scooter, would get mugged. When he got back to work to he’d get the stab wound wrapped up (he had only been stabbed once, maybe twice) and get chewed out by his boss for losing another night's payment.

            He wished his scooter wouldn’t sputter as much. He kept getting glares and side eyes from druggies grouping around random corners and battered doors. They eyed first him then the pizza bag haphazardly strapped to the back of his bike.

            Gritting his teeth, he kept an eye and ear out for anyone rushing his scooter, occasionally glancing at the address scrawled onto the back of a used, greasy receipt. He squinted at Jeremy’s hand writing before puffing a sigh and glancing at the buildings around him.

            He eventually pulled up to a ragged apartment complex where all of the apartments had direct access to the outside. The bike rack nearly disintegrated when he tried to wrap the chain around one of the bars and third wooden step to the second landing snapped in half when he put his weight on the left side.

            He eventually got to the third door in and knocked hard on the green wood. As he wiped his hand against his pants, he vaguely wondered if the door was actually painted green or if that was mold or moss.

            The locks clanked and turned. When the door began to open, the hinges squealed and squeaked loudly. Ray winced and wrinkled his nose, watching the door creak open. A single blue eye appeared first then the door swung further open.

            Ray’s eyes widened and he nearly dropped the pizza as a tall man wearing a ragged skull mask leaned against the open door, hand stuff into the pocket of his sweat pants. He stood as still as he possibly could, barely breathing and trying to remember what the hell his last words were and if he ever wrote down that Michael got all of his games and X-Box.

            “How much do I owe you?”

            Ray blinked three times, slowly, before a squeak slipped from his throat. “F-fifteen sixty,” he croaked, hands beginning to tremble.

            Was the Vagabond talking? No one heard him talk! Well, no one that lived anyway. He was the nation’s deadliest man and reportable one of the richest. Why the fuck was he ordering pizza? Why the fuck was he currently wrestling with his wallet to _pay_ for cardboard with cheese-ish stuff when he could just shoot him between the eyes and be done with the entire affair?

            “Fuck it, here. Keep the change,” Vagabond grumbled, holding a hundred out to Ray.

            Ray’s body worked on auto-pilot, eyes never leaving the skull mask. He took the hundred and jerkily held the pizza out. “Have a good night,” he squeaked before turning tail and making a break for his scooter.

           

* * *

 

            Ryan watched the pizza guy run for his bike and speed out of the complex faster than he thought the scooter could go. He blinked a few times before shrugging and shuffling back into his current hideout.

            “Well that was weird,” Ryan mumbled to himself as he closed the door and turned all of the locks.

            As he wandered toward the sticky kitchen, he passed the only decoration that came with the apartment. A small, cracked, square mirror that hung crooked on the wall next to the kitchen door. He caught sight of his skull mask and snorted.

            “Oh,” he laughed, reaching up to hook his fingers under the mask. He had forgotten to take the damn thing off.

            He smirked at his dried and flaking face paint and shook his head. No wonder the poor bastard looked like he shit himself.

            He tossed the mask into the bedroom directly across from the kitchen before going over to the small table and dropping into the rickety chair. He popped open the box and pulled one of the slices out as he dug in his pocket for his phone.

            Groaning when he remembered he left his phone in the bedroom, he took a quick bite from his slice then paused before he could stand. “Huh, not half bad,” he mumbled, taking the slice with him as he searched for his phone.

           

* * *

 

            Every time the phone rang, Ray would flinch and scramble to hide in the freezer. What if Vagabond called again? He needed this stupid ass job. He could get lucky only so many times.

            After about a week, he figured he was safe. Vagabond never stayed in one place long and who knew how long he was in town for. Of course, just as he got comfortable, a box was shoved into his stomach and a receipt slapped onto his forehead.

            The same mother fucking address.

            He told himself the entire ride over that maybe someone else had moved in. That made him wonder how easy blood stains were to clean up, but that thought made him more nervous the closer to the building he got.

            He was trembling so bad his knees were hitting each other by the time he got to the door. Swallowing hard, he knocked three times.

            He groaned when he saw a familiar blue eye then tall man with a skull mask fill the doorway. Vagabond tilted his head to the side, almost like a confused puppy, before shrugging and pulling out his wallet. “How much?”

            This was not casual, this was not okay. Ray was going to scream. He was going to die. “Fifteen-sixty,” he said with more calm that he felt.

            Vagabond grunted and held another hundred out to him. “Keep the change.”

            Ray nodded once, took the money, handed the pizza over, and then bolted. This would not be normal. Nope, nope. _Fuck that_.

            Two days later he was trying to con the same mother fucking delivery off on Cain. The bastard was egotistical and annoying, he deserved the bullet. He was almost succeeding when his boss caught him and basically kicked him onto his scooter.

            Grumbling, he made the drive hunched over. He did not want to get to know this route. He didn’t want to remember the Vagabond’s god damn room number from memory. Nope. Nope. He’d die tonight and he’d haunt those shitheads.

            Except, just like the last two times, the same exact things happened. Ray nearly shits himself knocking, Vagabond peaks with his eye then opens the door. He asks how much, Ray answers, the same damn price. He’s given a hundred, he hands over the box of poison and then he runs, waiting for the bullet to bite into his back. The pain never comes and he speeds so fast out of the area he’s certain he gives druggies whiplash.

            And _now_ it’s happening twice a week. _Twice_. A week!

            By the fourth week, Ray stopped being nervous. By the sixth he actually smiled at the Vagabond out of habit.

            “Do you actually like this shit?” Came out of his mouth the eight week and Vagabond paused, hundred half out of his wallet.

            Ray just waited for a response. If he does die today, he’s okay with that. He accepted his fate six weeks ago.

            Vagabond looked up at him and blinked owlishly for a moment before tilting his head to the side like he normally does when Ray shows up looking more and more exhausted by this weird exchange of theirs.

            “Eh, I’ve had worse,” Vagabond said before shrugging and pulling the hundred out.

            Ray snorted and took the bill, handing the pizza over. “It’s literally pizza-ish.”

            “Pizza-ish?” Vagabond said, rough voice light and amused.

            “Yeah, I’m not even sure that’s real, anything in there,” Ray said, wiggling his finger at the box, “And you’ve had worse?”

            “I’ve literally had to eat bugs for three weeks before,” Vagabond said, leaning against the side of the doorway, arms folded as much as they can with a pizza box in the way.

            Ray blinked at Vagabond for a moment, having to reprocess that he was staring at what a lot of dead people last looked at instead of a normal human. “I forgot you were the Vagabond.”

            Vagabond’s shoulders bunched up slightly before he’s laughing, nearly folding in half and dropping the box. Ray stared down at him and wondered if that was his cue to get the fuck out of dodge.

            “Holy shit,” Vagabond breathed, forcing himself upright, “I haven’t laughed like that in ages.”

            Ray could only stare. The fucker almost sounded human. Like there could be a person under all of that blood, gore, mystery, and search warrants. If he wasn’t careful, he could get attached to shit like that.

            Vagabond shook his head, gave Ray a little wave, before closing the door. Ray stared at the possibly moldy door for a minute before turning on his heels and running for his scooter.

            He did not intend for that weird conversation to become standard for their biweekly interactions. Yet, he found himself blurting random shit to the Vagabond. A murderer, a monster, a mass killer, a thief, assassin, a funny guy, a relatively nice dude, who had a nice laugh.

            Ray could slap himself. What the ever loving fuck had he gotten himself into?

            As he sat by the back door, waiting for an order, he pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes. Pros to this, he hadn’t been mugged in fucking ever and Vagabond paid well and talked to him like a human being. Plus, this had been going on for at least two-ish months now, that had to count for something. Cons to this, _he killed people for a living_. He was unpredictable and could just decide that Ray wasn’t interesting anymore. That had to be the reason this shit kept happening, didn’t it? He was interesting? Well, he needed to cut that shit out.

            Ray groaned and dropped his hands into his lap in time to see his boss stalking over to him. Trying not to speak the curses that came to mind, Ray sat up and forced a half-smile.

            “Yeah, boss?” Ray said, not expecting the sudden pain on his jaw and his head to snap to the side.

            He blinked past tears as his hand slowly came up to touch his reddening skin as he turned his head to look up at his boss. “You piece of shit!” his boss roared, shoving a bag of weed Ray knew for a fact belonged to the white as rice cook, “What is this? Are you trying to get the police to search us?!”

            Ray blinked slowly, pushing the bag aside to look up at his boss, eye twitching and mouth painfully pulling into a scowl. “Okay, just because I’m Puerto Rican, doesn’t mean I do weed. This shit is Jeff’s, he’s always high.”

            His boss opened his mouth to shout when Jeff wondered in from the kitchen with a box and a ticket. “Oh sweet! My stash! Thanks boss!” he slurred as he dropped the box on Ray’s lap and yanked the bag out of their boss’s grip.

            Ray stared up at his boss who was frozen in place as Jeff walked away sniffing the bag. Pursing his lips, Ray stood, sparing the ticket a glance before ducking under his bosses still raised arm. “Got a delivery to make, boss,” he hissed before slipping out the back door.

            He must have looked as pissed as he felt as he drove to the Vagabond’s apartment. Usually the druggies would all be watching him. Today they were almost cowering away.

            He stomped up the stairs at the building, skipping the still broken third step. Storming up to Vagabond’s door, he slammed his fist harder than necessary and shook as he waited.

            Vagabond opened the door without checking blinking down at him, Blue eyes wide behind the mask. “Fifteen fucking whatever,” Ray grumbled holding the pizza out, glaring at the crumbling concrete floor. He just, wasn’t in the mood for fucking anything.

            “What happened?”

            Ray frozen, the tension leaving him in a second. He slowly looked up at Vagabond who was studying his jaw which Ray realized probably looked like shit by now. His voice sounded so soft, so – concerned.

            Vagabond reached out and Ray didn’t flinch until he poked his bruising jaw. “It's fine,” he pushed out, waving the large, surprisingly gently hand away, “My boss is just a fucking racist asshole, that’s all.”

            Over the time he had been delivering pizza to the Vagabond, he had learned that all of the man’s emotions were in his eyes. He was actually extremely expressive for a man wearing a mask. Vagabond’s blue eyes lit up with a fire before the pizza was taken from his hand and the door was left open as he disappeared around a corner.

            Ray blinked, arm falling to the side. Hesitantly reaching up, he rested his hand on his aching jaw. He hissed and pulled his hand away when pain made his entire face hurt.

            “Here,” Vagabond said, holding a ratty cloth wrapped around what looked like a package of peas out to Ray.

            Hesitantly, Ray took the cloth and pressed the peas against his cheek, hissing and tensing in pain. They stood there in awkward silence, Vagabond watching him while Ray awkwardly shifted where he was standing, not looking at Vagabond as much as possible.

            “Want me to kill him?”

            Ray jumped and snapped his head up to look at Vagabond. His head spun and he stumbled slightly with a head rush. “What?”

            Vagabond steadied him with a gentle hand. “Do you want me to kill him?” he said again, eyes terribly honest.

            “I-fuck no man. He signs my paychecks. I need those,” Ray said, blinking at Vagabond before sighing, “Even if he’s a racist pig.”

            Vagabond stared at Ray for another moment before nodding and pulling his wallet out. “Keep the peas, and here’s for the pizza.”

            Ray took the two hundreds with a tired smile and nodded. “Thanks man, for, well. Caring, I guess.”

            Ray guessed that Vagabond smiled at him before watching to make sure he got to his scooter and got back on the road alright, but he had never seen that look in the Vagabond’s eyes before.

           

* * *

 

            Ray strolled up to Vagabond’s apartment with a grin. Good old high Jeff convinced Ray to report their boss weeks ago after the racist incident and after a too thorough investigation, he had gotten the asshole fired. His new boss was a very lovely woman named Lindsey who had Michael wrapped around her pinky and who didn’t take shit.

            She was super chill with him just continuing to deliver Vagabond’s pizza. He couldn’t wait to tell the big guy.

            Knocking, he leaned back and rocked on his feet as he waited. A moment later, the door opened and he froze. A man who couldn’t be that many years older than him stood in the doorway. Comfortable jeans hung from his hips and a tight t-shirt clung to his chest. Fluffy blond hair was a mess on his head. Light stubble lined his strong jaw and chin. He blinked at Ray with tired blue eyes.

            Had the Vagabond moved? Or was this the wrong apartment? It had to be that one. “S-sorry, wrong door,” he said, turning on his heels to recount doors when the man gave a familiar chuckle.

            “What? No, this is the right place, Ray,” the man said, tilting his head to the side and giving him an amused smile.

            Ray blinked at the mother fucking mask-less Vagabond and his jaw dropped. “You clean up well,” he blurted after a moment where Vagabond’s brow furrowed cutely.

            Vagabond’s eyes widened and he leaned back on his heels pursing his lips. Wow, he was a lot more expressive than Ray thought, especially his blond eyebrows. Vagabond reached up and touched his face and snorted. “I feel like I should be offended, but I’m not,” he laughed, smiling at Ray again.

            Ray blinked at the Vagabond and honestly had no idea how to respond. After about two minutes of awkward silence where the man’s smile only seemed to grow fonder, Ray finally blurted words. “You’re not going to kill me, are you?”

            “What? May favorite delivery guy?” Vagabond put his hand over his heart and rolled his eyes, “Of course not.”

            Ray gave a short laugh before shaking his head. “I just-you’re fucking hot man.” Ray wanted to punch himself, shoulders bunching up near his ears.

            “Thanks?” Vagabond chuckled, pulling his wallet from his back pocket, “Same as always?”

            “Y-yeah,” Ray mumbled, blushing lightly as he held the pizza out.

            Vagabond chuckled lightly and gave Ray his usual hundred. He stared at the pizza for a moment then watched Ray fiddle with the bill. “When do you have days off?”

            Ray jumped and stared at him with wide eyes and a red face. “Uh, I-Saturdays.”

            Vagabond nodded and tried to fiddle with his wallet one handed. Before Ray could offer to take the pizza back, despite how funny watching such a strong man juggle a pizza box and a surprisingly tiny wallet was, a plain, black business card was being held out to him.

            “Uh, call me?” Vagabond said, tilting his head to the side and smiling sheepishly.

            Ray snorted and laughed, taking the car and looking over the phone number in bright red. There was nothing else on the card, not even a name. “I’m being asked on a date,” he breathed, looking up at Vagabond who was running his hand through his hair, blushing lightly while smiling awkwardly, “By a mad man.”

            “Hope that doesn’t ruin it,” Vagabond said, stuffing his hand in his pocket and leaning against the door frame.

            “No, not really,” Ray said, smiling tiredly. He looked back down at the card before looking up at Vagabond. “Only, if I get your real name.”

            Vagabond tensed and Ray wondered, for the first time actually, if he went too far. Then Vagabond relaxed and his eyes had that unnamable look but now they were accompanied by a heartwarming fond smile. “My name’s Ryan.”

            Ray, cheeks bright pink, took a deep breath and gave Ryan a dazzling smile. “Well, Ryan, you’ve got yourself a date Saturday.”


	29. Camp Camp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max's parents never came at the end of the summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!

           When the last car pulled away, there was silence. The bus sat behind them as they sat on the curb of the community center’s parking lot. The Quartermaster was sleeping at the wheel, hooked hand hanging at his side and legs crossed on the top of the wheel. His mustache rippled with every snore.

The sun hung low in the sky and David had blissfully shut up the instant Nikki was dragged into her family’s soccer mom van. They sat with a foot between them, Max’s small suitcase laying on the ground in front of him, his short legs propped up on the bulge of socks and underwear in the front pocket.

He tapped away at his phone, finally with signal. Neil was already bitching about his parents, explaining, in detail, how he was going to pit them against each other to get a new science kit. Nikki was bitching about being away from nature and how sick she was feeling. Max didn’t even bitch about being stuck with David, he never did. Not after the first year.

David wasn’t even humming. He was on his own phone, smiling fondly at whatever message was vibrating his phone. Eventually he set his phone down between them, the damn thing vibrating between them every so often. Even without the distraction, David said nothing, didn’t even sigh. He looked tired, as he always did when they sat there, waiting.

Max felt his skin itch after the normal three hour mark. “They’re not coming,” he said, finally breaking the silence.

“Don’t think like that Max! I’m sure they’re on their way!” David said, as he did every year. His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes, like every year.

“It’s been three hours,” Max said softly, stuffing his phone in his hoodie pocket, “They didn’t even send a stupid letter this year.”

David didn’t respond for a moment before scooping up his phone. With a gentle smile, he dialed a number, patted Max’s head and held up a finger. “Yes, I would like to request help locating some parents?” he said as he walked back toward the bus.

Max felt himself cringe a bit on the inside. David always said he would call if his parents never showed up. He hadn’t had to before, but they were edging on four hours now. The sun was setting.

David kept his back to Max as he talked on the phone, but his back tensed and relaxed as the phone call dragged on. Max felt his phone vibrate with more messages, but he didn’t have the stomach to look. As much as he hated Camp Campbell and David’s endless optimism, and Gwen’s fucking bitching, and the Quartermaster’s…Quartermaster-ness, at least people cared. He rarely made friends at camp, but they fed him, and David always made sure he was okay.

He learned, after the first year and he was almost abandoned the second year, that David was just as fucking tired of his own optimism by the end of the summer as Max was. He was still an optimist, but he didn’t try as hard. He would agree to Max’s pessimism sometimes too. He liked after-camp-was-over David. He was still obnoxious, but Max didn’t really hate him.

He looked up when David cleared his throat. He was trying his hardest to give him the wide smile he always had during camp, but he looked more nervous than anything else. “Hey Max! How about a nice trip back to camp? For a-uh-few days?” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“What?” Max said slowly, narrowing his eyes. “What the fuck is going on, camp man?”

David winced and sighed. He slowly sat beside Max again, a little closer this time, by about an inch. “They sent a cop car to your house,” he said slowly, starting at the ground in front of them. “They didn’t find them. Actually, they think it’s been empty for months.”

Max felt his heart beat throughout his entire body as David laughed awkwardly, still smiling and with a white knuckled grip on his phone. He could actually hear the plastic case creak under his fingers past the blood rushing in his ears. “They want us to wait for child services to come pick you up.”

Max’s eyes snapped to David’s face and he ground his teeth as he scowled. “No, fuck that!” he shouted, startling the Quartermaster out of his nap, making his boot hit the bus horn.

Max tried to scramble away from David, but a long, skinny arm wrapped around his middle, keeping him in place. “OR! Or!” David said quickly, ignoring Max’s flying tiny fists, “I can call them and tell them you’re staying with me until everything is sorted.”

Max froze head snapping around to glare at David. “What?” he hissed, still trying to pull away.

“I have all of the documentation to be a foster parent, I was going to start this school year! I think I can convince them to let you stay with me,” David pushed out in a rush, slowly pulling his arm away, ready to catch Max if he tried to run again. “Er, my Dad probably could, even Bro could,” he started mumble more to himself and Max felt frozen where he stood.

“You’re willing to put up with me as your kid?” Max said slowly, folding his arms and still glaring at David. “Yeah, fucking right.”

David stopped himself mid-ramble. He looked over at Max, letting his hands fall to his lap, knees digging into the gravel. “It’s up to you. I will happily take you in, but if you don’t want to come with me, we can wait for your case worker.”

Max scowled, arms unfolding to hug his middle instead. David was giving him a sad smile, ready to do whatever Max wanted. The Quartermaster was watching them with possible confusion from the bus, his face never really changed all that much.

“Where-where the fuck do you live anyway? At that shitty camp? If you think I’m sleeping in a fucking tent, you’re more of a fucking idiot than you look,” Max gritted out, fingers curling into his hoodie to keep from shaking.

David’s smile brightened and his eyes lit up just like it was the first day of camp all over again. “Don’t worry Max! I have an apartment! It’s really nice, you’ll love it! We can turn the spare room into anything you want. Within reason!” he added quickly when Max’s eyes brightened for half a second. “But first we need to settle some work-Oh shoot!”

Max frowned when David looked at his phone with his brows furrowed, biting his lip. “What is it, David, already having second thoughts?”

David’s head snapped around so quickly Max thought he actually heard it break. “Oh Gosh no! I just have a family gathering I can’t really get out of,” he said, frowning at his phone again before shrugging. “Although, I suppose we can settle everything on the way, I was going to have to call my fathers anyway.”

“Fathers?” Max said, scowling when David picked up his luggage, “What kind of family gathering is this anyway? A bunch of you camp man freaks?”

David laughed, herding Max back toward the bus with a hand on his back. “Oh golly no, I think I’m the only one who even likes camping.”

“Wait, seriously?” Max said, making a face as he looked up at David, “How the fuck did you get so fucking weird then?”

David chuckled and waved for the Quartermaster to start the bus. “That’s a bit of a long story. I’m sure my brother would love to tell you. Or my sib.”

“Sib?” Max snorted, frowning when David made him sit in the first bench then sat next to him, his luggage pushed under their seat.

“Sibling,” David said without hesitation, yanking out his phone again. He moved to start typing, stopped himself, and pulled out another phone. An old flip phone Max had never seen before. Damn thing even had an antenna David yanked out of the top.

“Where the fuck did that come from, the stone age?” Max snorted as David flipped the top up and started pressing at the keys.

“I actually bought it a couple of months ago!” David said cheerfully as he raised the phone to his ear, “It has a better range.”

Max opened his mouth to ask why the fuck David even needed two phones for when he started speaking in soft, slow, and awkward Spanish. Max froze before his eyes narrowed. David was still smiling, his face was probably that way by default anymore, but it was fond, if not slightly exasperated.      

“I’m perfectly fine, Papa,” David said suddenly in English, rolling his eyes, “I think it’s fine, can I talk to Dad?.....oh, unless you want to call child ser-pfft, yeah. That’s what I thought.”

There was silence for a moment. David was humming softly and Max risked a glance at the Quartermaster in the rearview mirror. The old crazy was glancing at them rapidly in the mirror, eyes narrowed and mustache moving as he mumbled something to himself.

“Dad?” David said, startling Max, “Oh good, Papa-no-yeah. He’s sitting right next to me…okay-but….I don’t kno-“ he pushed out a sigh but nodded, “Alright, I’ll tell them, they’re already at the camp. Here-Max….Here he his.”

David offered Max the phone with an encouraging smile. Slowly and with narrowed eyes, Max took the phone. “What the fuck do you want?” he snapped into the receiver, expecting David to try and yank the phone back, but instead he only winced and shook his head.

There was a laugh over the phone. “Now I remember,” a deep voice said and Max almost wanted to curl into a ball. David’s dad sounded like a fucking murderer. “David mentioned you before. Said something like this might happen.”

“Uh,” Max gasped, shooting David a panicked look. He just waved for him to keep talking. Not helpful, asshole. “What the fuck do you want?”

Another laugh and Max wondered if that was the ‘I’m going to murder this kid laugh’. “I just need some of your info for when I call child services. I have my ways, but I still need some shit.”

When Max said nothing and neither did David’s father, they sat in silence for about a minute before David cleared his throat. “You’re going to have to talk, Dad likes to be-Dad,” David said, mouth twisting awkwardly around his words.

Max scowled at him before huffing. “What information do you need, asshole?”

David winced but his father laughed and Max decided to count his wins where he could. “Your full name, birthdate, age, old address, parent’s names, and phone number for starters.”

David’s father grilled him on basic information for about three minutes before just hanging up. He yanked the phone away from his face with a disgusted look, frowning when David plucked it from his fingers. “Did he just hang up?” he said, looking over the screen.

“Yeah, your Dad’s a dick,” Max huffed, folding his arms and sinking in his seat. They were nowhere near camp. He’d made this trip enough times to know that they’d be stuck on that stupid bus for at least another half hour.

“No, he just treated you like you treated him,” David snorted, snapping the phone shut, “He does it to Uncle Mikey a lot.”

“There’s a fucking Uncle now?” Max sneered, glaring up at David, “How much family do you even have?”

David opened his mouth, stopped himself, pursed his lips, and then hummed in thought. “A lot,” he said after a moment, smiling brightly, “You’ll like them all though. You’ll fit in better than I ever did.”

Max opened his mouth to ask what the fuck that meant when David’s smart phone rang. He glanced at the caller, flinched, and denied the call. He stared at his phone for a moment and Max wasn’t really sure what he was expecting, but for David to drop it, slam his heel down on it, then throw it out the window was not it. Even the Quartermaster looked flabbergasted.

David, either ignoring or not noticing their stares, pulled the flip phone back out and snapped it open, tapping away at the keys rapidly. “So when we get back to camp, we’ll have to close everything down,” he said without looking up, “But it won’t take long. My brother, sibling, and brother-in-law will be there and they’ll help.”

Max said nothing, slowly narrowing his eyes at David. “And who are those assholes?”

David looked up and blinked slowly at Max for a second before smiling brightly. “James is a game designer, you’ve actually played his game!”

“What,” Max said without thinking, arms falling to his lap.

“On your DS, he helped design that chaos game you like so much,” David said, still smiling brilliantly, “Rosa is a photographer, Preston actually has some of her shots from plays!”

“Wait, what,” Max said, sitting up slightly and waving his tiny arms.

“And Louis is a fashion designer, Nerris actually owns a lot of his clothes. They’re the gender neutral designs?” David continued on before grabbing Max’s hands before they could hit him. “Yes Max?”

Max ripped his hands from David’s grip and folded his arms again. “Are you telling me that everyone in your fucking family if wildly successfully and then there’s you? Some lame camp counselor?”

“And teacher! During the school year,” David said, still smiling, “And yes!”

Max studied David’s face and the urge to be cruel pulled at his stomach. Then how the fuck did David become such a failure? Why was he so fucking happy to be a middle class citizen? However, in a great show of control, especially for a ten year old, Max, for once, didn’t say what he was thinking.

“How the fuck?” he said instead and was quite proud of himself.

David’s head tilted to the side, still smiling although it was draining from his eyes. “Well, we all have different wants.”

They were silent for the rest of the ride. The Quartermaster seemed more confused than ever before while David tapped at his phone and Max tried to process the fact that his possible future family was a bunch of famous and powerful people and his possible foster parent was the failure of the family.

He was surprisingly okay with that. Rich people were the ones that left him in the hands of some shitty camp. Rich fucks were the reason he was going back to said shitty camp to avoid child services.

When they finally arrived back at camp, there were two very nice cars waiting for them. David scooped up Max’s luggage before he could even think of reaching for it. The Quartermaster disappeared the instant he was off the bus, leaving them to walk past the shiny, new cars and back into camp.

Max opened his mouth to ask what the fuck was going to happen now when a very tall young man appeared around the corner, a shorter man and woman appearing behind him. “Little bro!” the tall man said, jogging over and wrapping David up into a tight hug. “How’ve you been?”

“Bro!” David laughed, hugging the man back. The instant he was set down, the woman nearly tackled him to the ground. “Sib!”

The tall man and the shorter man laughed as the woman spoke a rapidly to David. She was even more ecstatic than David was when they were doing a camp activity he liked. “Sib, Sib!” David laughed, ruffling the woman’s short brown hair before gently pushing her away. “This, is Max.”

There was silence as all three adults looked down at Max as David gently pushed him forward. Awkwardly waving, Max risked a smile that turned more into a grimace.

“Oh my god, he’s cute,” the woman said, crouching and offering Max her hand, “My name’s Rosa! I used ae/aer pronouns, by the way.”

“So what did Dad say?” the tall man said as the shorter man knelt down next to Rosa, hand on aer back. Wedding bands glittered on their fingers.

“Hey, I’m Louis, and that’s James. We both use he/him pronouns,” the man said, jerking his thumb back at the tall man.

Max narrowed his eyes at them before looking up at James and David who were talking quietly in Spanish. “What the fuck is with the Spanish?”

Rosa and Louis leaned back with wide eyes. They shared a look before grinning at Max. “Oh, you’re going to fit right in,” Rosa said

Max pouted - no wait. Not pouted. Scowled. Yeah. He did _not_ pout. “Their father is Puerto Rican,” Louis said as Rosa stood and easily joined the conversation, “Er well, he was born in New York, but his parents taught him some Spanish. He decided it would be a neat way to connect with his kids if they all learned Spanish together.”

Max narrowed his eyes at Louis who smiled sheepishly at him. “What the fuck do you want?” he said after a moment when Louis didn’t move to join the other adults.

“Oh well, do you have any questions?” Louis said, shifting awkwardly on his toes, “You probably won’t get much of a straight answer out of any of the Haywoods.”

Max glanced up at David and his siblings. Rosa’s eyes were nearly glittering as ae said something rapidly in Spanish, gesturing between Louis and aerself. James rolled his eyes while David blushed and laughed. “Why doesn’t he look like them?”

Louis’s brow furrowed as Max just started at him, arms folded. He glanced up at the siblings before understanding sparked in his eyes. David’s red hair didn’t match the dirty blond hair that was carefully styled on James’s head nor the nearly brown mop on Rosa’s. His green eyes weren’t even close to the shade of blue Rosa’s were while James’s eyes were coal black. He was the shorter than James but taller than Rosa. Their body types didn’t even match.

“David was adopted by their parents,” Louis said slowly after a moment, looking back down at Max, “When he was in high school I think.”

Max’s shoulders bunched up and he frowned. He opened his mouth but Louis was suddenly knocked over by Rosa. “Max! I’m going to be your Zizi!”

Max blinked blankly at Rosa for a moment. “You’re going to be my penis?” he said slowly, withholding a laugh when David nearly fell over himself, uttering nonsense. James and Rosa blinked at him before bursting out laughing. Louis was biting his lip.

“I told you, Rosa,” Louis said, voice cracking up at the edges, “Titi is better.”

“Boobs?” Max said, smiling when James nearly fell over as he laughed.

David gave him an exasperated smile, but didn’t seem too terribly concerned. “Since we’re not French,” Rosa managed through aer laughter, “Zizi is like Aunt and Uncle, okay?”

“Sure, whatever,” Max said, kicking a clump of dirt next to his foot, “Are we leaving or whatever?”

“Nope!” David said, standing up straight, smiling in relief, “We still have to close the camp!”

“It’s mostly done,” James breathed, holding his stomach and wiping a nonexistent tear from his eye. “Just the mess hall left.”

“Oh,” David said, deflating slightly. “Sorry about that.”

“No need to apologize, little bro,” James said, squeezing David’s shoulder. “You had important shit to do. And ‘sides, Dad and Papa are probably dying to meet their grandkid.”

“Who says I want to meet them?” Max said, folding his arms and glaring up at the adults. They all stared down at him and then had identical smiles to when David knew Max was bull shitting but were alright with playing along anyway. He both hated and liked that about all of them instantly.

“You remind me of Uncle Mikey,” Rosa said, ruffling Max’s hair and smirking when he slapped at aer hand, “Full of bitter and sass.”

“I’ll help you finish up,” James said, pushing David toward the mess hall.

“Wait, but-!” David said, frowning worriedly over his shoulder at Rosa and Louis.

“Oh come on, they’re trying for one. They’re not going to kill the kid,” James snorted, waving at them over his shoulder. “You two get Max ready to go!”

“Done!” Rosa said, jumping to aer feet and scooping up Max’s bag. Ae nearly ran to the cars while Louis shook his head after aer.

“Trying?” Max said after a moment, looking at Louis whose face instantly turned red.

“Oh well, Rosa and I have been trying to have a child for about a year now,” Louis said slowly, smiling awkwardly at Max, “You’ll be the first grandkid.”

Max wrinkled his nose and glanced back at Rosa. “Ae’s happier than David.”

“Oh hell yeah,” Louis laughed, rubbing his hand over his face, “You should see the two of them when David isn’t exhausted.”

Max cringed and shivered, withholding another smile when Louis laughed. Alright, so David’s family wasn’t half bad. “Whose Uncle Mikey or whatever?”

“He’s-” Louis paused, waving his hand uselessly in the air. “He’s a brash and bitter guy. Curses a lot and shouts just as much…You’re a lot like him.”

Max snorted and rolled his eyes. “Oh great, so he’s an asshole.”

“Basically, yes,” Louis chuckled, leaning back and sitting with his legs crossed on the ground. “You’ll meet him soon enough. We’re heading for the family reunion after this.”

“How many people is that anyway?” Max said, tensing as Louis’s eyes rolled up and he counted under his breath.

“Uh, a lot,” he said eventually, looking back at Max. He took about a second to take in Max’s shoulders bunching up and his back tensing. “Uh, but uh, not all at once. They’re all super busy so over the week you’ll end up seeing everyone. Probably in groups of about six or seven.”

Max’s shoulders dropped but the tension stayed in his back. “It’s fucking whatever,” he muttered and Louis sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“Alright!” David and Rosa said at the same time as they appeared out of nowhere. Max jumped with a small surprised noise. Louis barely flinched, smiling tiredly up at Rosa. David adjusted the straps of the bag on his back, smiling happily to himself.

“Ready to go kid?” James said, grinning down at Max.

“Do I have a fucking choice?” Max sneered, not-pouting when James laughed.

“Nope!” James said, ruffling his hair before heading for the car. “You and little bro are riding with me. Let’s head out!”

“You okay Max?” David said cheerfully as he herded Max towards his brother’s car while Rosa pulled Louis to his feet.

“I’m fucking fine,” Max snapped, leaning out of David’s warm hand.

David didn’t audibly sigh, but his body rocked with one. “If you’re uncomfortable going, we can stay and-”

“Fuck no,” Max said, shooting David a nasty glare. “I’m fucking fine.”

David paused, frowning after Max. “James? I think we’ll-“

“Go!” Max said, still glaring at David before he climbed into the back seat. He buckled his seat belt, knowing that David would undoubtedly make him do as James shut the door.

The siblings all shared looks. “Everything okay?” James said slowly, taking David’s backpack when it was held out to him.

“I think so,” David sighed, sparing a glance at Max.

“He’ll be alright,” Louis said slowly, opening the driver’s side door to their car. “As long as we don’t overwhelm him with family.”

David nodded and plastered a smile on his face. Rosa and James shared a second long look as David climbed into the passenger side door. Shaking his head, James tossed David’s backpack in with Max’s and his own in the trunk before getting into his car.

The ride from the camp to an actual highway was silent. James had the radio playing music softly, shooting David a glare when the words ‘farmer’s almanac’ nearly left his lips.

Max went from watching the brothers to glaring out the window. To be fair, he could be having a much worse night. He could be in some foster home or sleeping with a bunch of other bitchy and asshole kids. Instead he was listening to fairly decent music heading for a reunion of people who were to become his family. Definitely could be worse.

“You did...book tickets this time, didn’t you?” David said suddenly. Max quickly pretended to be asleep when David turned to glance at him. He kept his eyes closed as James hummed in thought.

“Nope,” James said and David deep sighed.

“We can’t just-“ David began, but James snorted, interrupting him.

“We can still buy some, we just might sit in the airport for hours on end for the next flight with a pleasant surprise ten year old,” James said and Max felt eyes on him but didn’t dare open his own.

“That’s better than-” David started again but James groaned loudly.

“It’ll be fine, just make sure you have a good hold of him,” James said quickly. There was a pause long enough for Max to risk opening his eyes a crack. David was actually glaring at James. “What?”

“St-” James made another loud noise but David pushed through before he could speak again, “I know he’s awake!”

“Oh, so you’re okay with just saying it then?” James snorted, glancing at Max in the rear view mirror. “Give it up kid, we’re on to you.”

Max glared back when he opened his eyes and sat up. “What? I was sleeping.”

“Yeah, uh huh,” James snorted, chuckling as he shook his head and looked back at the road.

“Anyway, I don’t think our usual mode of transportation is the best way to introduce him to-to the, uh-“ David’s mouth opened and closed as his brow furrowed.

“The family business?” James said, chuckling when David nodded and Max narrowed his eyes at them. “What are you talking about? It’s better than how you found out.”

David paled and his face twisted in disgust for a second. “No, I don’t think anything could be that bad, but I don’t think it’s the best way either. Especially if it’s a surprise.”

“Then why don’t we tell him?” Max said in a poor imitation of David. He glared when both adults looked at him.

“Good point,” James said with a nod.

“Sorry to talk like you’re not here,” David said quickly, turning in his seat to look at Max, “It’s nothing really, we’ll just-“

“We’re going to steal a plane,” James said and David hung his head. “A small one, after they’re done fueling it.”

Max’s eyes went wide while David shot his brother a glare. “We’re WHAT?!” he shouted, making both adults wince.

David sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Well, you see Max, James isn’t just a game designer, he’s-he’s also the new Vagabond.”

David seemed to shrink in his seat the longer Max just started at him with eyes the size of dinner plates. “New?” Max squeaked out.

“Yep, Dad was the original,” James said before David could sputter out a response, “I took up the name when he and Papa retired. Rosa thought about being the new BrownMan but decided to be a normal citizen instead.”

“And I was never interested,” David said quickly, frowning worriedly at Max, “Max? Are you okay?”

Smoke was almost pouring out of Max’s ears as his eyes shifted between James and David. “You’re parenTS WERE THE VAGABOND AND BROWNMAN?!”

David winced and nodded, shifting nervously when Max just continued to stare at him. “Max-“

“Were you a member? Were all of you members? Is Louis in on it to?! Who was he?!” Max blurted out, nearly bouncing in his seat.

“Uh, technically I was. James always has been and Rosa decided to quit. Louis is a normal citizen Rosa met in college.” David rattled off answers as quickly as the questions came, getting more and more unsettled as they went. James stayed quiet, eyes flickering between them and the road.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were actually cool?!” Max finished, smiling the brightest and most honest smile David had ever seen on his face.

There was silence as David’s mind processed the words and James started laughing. “You think I’m cool?!” David gasped, giving Max a blinding smile.

“Wait-No!” Max said, physically trying to backpedal into his seat, “I-I meant your family is cool! You-uh- you’re fuck-fucking weird!”

“Aw Max!” David sniffed, wiping actual tears from his eyes. “You think I’m cool.”

Max groaned as James laughed loudly, slapping the steering wheel. “You done fucked yourself, kid,” he said, eyes on the road.

“Shut the fuck up,” Max mumbled, slumping in his seat as David nearly crawled into the backseat to hug Max. Thankfully James stopped him before he caused an accident.

They got to the airport at three in the morning. The camp was already fairly secluded but the town it was attached to was equally as far from the rest of society. The nearest airport was a considerable distance away and when they finally arrived, James and David had stopped to switch places twice.

Max slept through most of the ride, grumbling and glaring at David when he was woken up at the airport. When he dragged himself out of the car, he found that they weren’t in the parking lot, but hidden among some bushes beside the fence sectioning off the runway.

Max’s foggy brain tried to remember why the fuck they were there, and almost had it, when he was suddenly being picked up. “Let go!” he shouted on reflex, wiggling in David’s hands.

“Max! Shhhhh!” David hissed, instantly setting Max down and kneeling in front of him. “Sorry, but we’re going to have to move quickly and I don’t want you to be left behind.”

Max’s brow furrowed before he was suddenly hit with what James had said in the car. He glanced behind David as James, Rosa, and Louis approached. Louis was holding Max’s suit case while Rosa was putting something underneath both cars. James was looking over the knife in his hand, the blade was longer than his forearm and glinted in the lamp light.

“Oh,” he breathed, looking back at David who smiled nervously at him. “I can fucking walk.”

“We won’t be walking,” David said slowly, eyes looking up for a second before focusing on Max again, “We have a really short window to get onto a small plane and we’re not going in through the front door.”

Max blinked at David for a long moment. Some part of him was fairly convinced he was dreaming. Mr. Goody-two-shoes David was telling him that they were about to steal a motherfucking plane right from its terminal because his family was a bunch of mercenaries and killers.

“Fucking, whatever, I guess,” Max said, digging his nails into his palm. Pricks of pain shot up his arms as David gave him a relieved smile and scooped him into his arms.

Something like anxiety built in his stomach, but he was too unbothered by the feeling for it to be a problem. As David propped him on his hip and he dug his fingers into his shirt, he felt like he was shaking. Not with fear, no. His face wanted to grin manically too much for him to be afraid. No, this was like the thrill of almost escaping camp, but this time, it wasn’t David stopping him - he was the one carrying him to freedom.

The instant David had Max settled in his arm, they were off. Max had to wrap his arms around David’s neck to keep a tight hold. They were moving a fuck ton faster than his stupid tiny legs could hope to carry him. They stuck to shadows, running under the belly of a few planes.

The instant they were next to a small plane, the fueling truck speeding away, Rosa pulled out a remote with only a small red button on it. Both David and Louis winced upon seeing her manic smile. She pressed the button and the Earth shook.

Max watched the mushroom cloud coming from where the cars had been parked as David led the way over to the back of the plane. “Max, go,” David hissed, pushing Max into the small storage room of the plane.

With one, last hesitant look back at the explosion, Max crawled further into the room. David followed after him, scooping him into his arms the instant he could. Max held on for dear life, heart nearly beating out of his chest. The feeling in his stomach felt more like anxiety as James, Rosa, and Louis crammed into the small room with them.

Pressing his face into the bandana that was always around David’s neck, he smelt wood, dirt, and murky water and relaxed. David smelled like camp. He smelled like Max imagined David probably always smelled. A warm hand rubbed up and down his back and he felt the tensing in his stomach release a little more.

He barely heard the door to the passenger cabin snap open or James shooting the only person on the plane. He was aware when David sat him in one of the front seats and did up his belt, their bags resting on the ground at their feet. Rosa and Louis were across the aisle from them. The door to the cockpit, where James was frantically hitting buttons and pressing levers, had weird ketchup splatters. There was a puddle on the ground and smears of more ketchup leading to the closed stairs.

David was still rubbing his back and saying something to him. Max could barely hear him over the roar in his ears. “Max? Max? Are you okay?” David said slowly as the plane jerked into motion.

“Why did they spill ketchup?” Max muttered, blinking when David gave him a startled look before smiling softly.

“James scared a flight attendant,” David said slowly, just a little louder than normal, “He had a bottle for some reason.”

“That’s fucking weird,” Max said, blinking slowly as he leaned back against the seat.

David chuckled and nodded, slipping his hand from behind Max. He hesitantly ran his fingers through his hair, trying to put some sort of order to the tangle of black strands. “Very. Go to sleep Max, we’ll be at the family farm before you know it.”

“The Vagabond lives on a fucking farm?” Max snorted, eyes fluttering closed.

“No, the Vagabond is flying the plane,” David said, smiling softly as Max’s eyes closed and stayed closed. “Ryan Haywood always wanted a farm.”

Max snorted before he fell into blissfully dreamless sleep. He was aware that he woke up a few times because the seats were fucking uncomfortable. One time he woke to Rosa leaving the cockpit with the plane’s black box in hand, a massive hole in the device. Another time, he woke curled up against David’s side but was too tired to move or wake the big idiot to make him move so he just went back to sleep.

He was woken up completely by the plane jerking as the wheels hit the ground. He scowled as he stretched. David was awake, looking out the window, a giant smile on his face. Max craned his neck to look out the window around him, seeing miles and miles of corn.

“I see Dad and Papa!” Rosa said excitedly as the plane slowed to a stop. Ae frowned for half a second before rolling aer eyes. “They have a sign.”

“Again?” David chuckled, smiling softly as he gathered up his and Max’s bags.

“Daw, this one is for Max though,” Rosa said as Louis handed ae aer bag.

“What?” Max said blandly as David smiled brightly.

“They do this every year,” James said from the cockpit, slinging his bag onto his shoulders, “You know like at airports when they hold signs saying welcome home and shit?”

“I bet Dad’s already got all of the paperwork settled,” Rosa said as Louis fought with the door. “He looks fucking happy.”

“They’ve been harping us for kids since they retired,” James snorted as David stood.

“Ready to meet your grandparents?” David said cheerfully, holding Max’s suitcase out to him.

“Fuck yeah,” Max blurted, slipping from his seat and blatantly ignoring his bag. He headed for the door, David following after him, happily holding onto his bag.

“Ha!” Louis said, smiling smugly when the door finally opened.

“About damn time,” James snorted, grinning at Louis’s glare as he let David and Max ahead of him.

Max jumped down the stairs as Rosa rushed from the plane and nearly tackled a short man with dark brown eyes behind heavy glasses and black hair. Beside him was another man who was about the same height as James. His blue eyes nearly glowed, blond hair that was just beginning to gray on the sides pulled back into a ponytail.

“Rosa!” the short man laughed, hugging his child before dragging Louis into the hug as well. Max suddenly felt nervous knots in his stomach again, stopping short in front of the stairs.

David nearly ran into him, stopping just in time. James patted his shoulder and jumped to the ground, walking over to hug both men. Nodding after his brother, David set Max’s suitcase down and kneeled beside him. “It’s alright Max,” he said softly.

“They’re not going to like me,” Max mumbled, wondering what the hell it was about stealing a plane and thinking blood was ketchup made him think he trusted David at all.

“They’ll love you,” David chuckled, placing a hand on Max’s back and rejoicedinternally when he wasn’t immediately shaken off. “You’ll see.”

Max shot him an unbelieving glare, jumping when there was suddenly someone else kneeling in front of him. He looked over at the motherfucking original Vagabond and froze.

“Welcome to the family Max,” Ryan Haywood said gently, giving Max a soft smile.

“Aw, he’s cute,” Ray said, peering over his husband’s shoulder. “You sure this is the kid that’s been giving you so much trouble Davy?”

Max snorted and laughed before he could stop himself. “Davy? You’re father fucking calls you Davy? That’s so lame!” he laughed before tensing and looking at Ray and Ryan. Neither seemed offended or shocked.

“Ah, there it is,” Ray snorted, smiling at Max before pulling David into a tight hug. He said something in Spanish as David hugged him back.

Max scowled, jumping when Ryan cleared his throat. “You’ll get used to it,” he said, still looking up at Ray and David. “I have no idea what they’re saying either.”

Max blinked as the fucking Vagabond winked at him before standing and grabbing his suitcase. “Is this all that you have?” he said, frowning down at the bag.

“Uh, yeah, I pack everything in case…” Max said, shifting awkwardly when something like rage sparked in Ryan’s eyes before disappearing.

“Well then, we’ll just have to send you off with some things,” Ryan said with a nod before pulling David into a tight hug. “Welcome home kiddo.”

David smiled at his parents before looking down at Max. “See? Told you they would like you!”

“Yeah, shut up,” Max mumbled but willingly took David’s hand when he offered it to him. Anxiety still curled in his stomach as they all piled into the van Ray and Ryan drove to meet them in. They had to drive an hour to get to the Haywood family farmhouse, most of the ride spent with Ray and Ryan both grilling David and Max about what Mav could possibly want.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, Papa, but I have plenty of money to get Max whatever he wants when we get back,” David said once he noticed Max’s answers become more and more vague as he curled into himself on the seat.

“Nonsense, he’s our grandkid, let us spoil him,” Ray snorted before his eyes zeroed in on his other children. “And you two, get to it! We want more kids to spoil.”

“You’re just bored,” James snorted, patting the seat next to Max’s shoulder and giving him a reassuring smile when he glanced at him. “Maybe you should re-enter the game again.”

“No!” Ryan said when Ray sat up straighter. “We’re too old for that.”

“Well _you_ are,” Ray muttered, slumping in his seat before smiling softly at Max. “Sorry, Max.”

Max’s face twisted before he just shrugged. He flinched when David’s hand landed on his back, regretting when he instantly pulled his hand away. “Are you okay, Max?” he said, leaning over to catch his eyes.

“Fucking fine,” Max muttered, refusing to meet David’s eyes.

David didn’t sigh, but he looked like he wanted to. Instead he quickly pulled a familiar bear out of the top pocket of Max’s suitcase. Before anyone else in the car could really focus on what was happening, Max had snatched the bear and hugged it to his chest. As much as he didn’t want to, he allowed himself to shoot David a grateful look.

He got a grin back and was left alone for the rest of the ride. There was something about the whirlwind of emotions he had felt in the last two days and the fact that he knew that David knew half of what he said was bullshit made him feel a bit safer. He told David last year, when he was sure that was the year his parents would abandon him, that he actually liked camp. David hadn’t made a big deal out of it like he thought he might. Instead he just grinned at him and nodded, letting them sit in silence.

After-Camp David was still better. Even now as his family talked, he wasn’t joining in too much. He was smiling, but not that big cheesy thing that made Max’s head hurt. He still countered every pessimistic thing anyone said with something optimistic but he was so much more manageable. As Max unfolded over the course of the rest of the ride, bear still clutched to his chest, he felt safer.

The farmhouse was nothing special. It looked old and shitty on the outside, but the inside was clean and well cared for. Max still made a face but was immediately distracted by the shelves of games and multitude of gaming consuls under a flat screen TV.

Ray chuckled and waved for David to take their bags upstairs as he led Max over to the TV. “I bet you’re dying from being at camp,” he said as Max sat and he started up the Xbox “Want to play a few games?”

“Don’t go easy on him Papa!” Rosa said before disappearing upstairs.

“Are you kidding? Kid’s screwed,” James snorted, following after Louis, who was shaking his head, up the stairs.

“Go, Davy,” Ryan said softly as David hovered at the bottom of the stairs, “I’ll keep an eye on them.”

“Okay,” David said, smiling when Max nearly snatched the controller from Ray’s hands. Shaking his head, he went up the stairs.

Ray was good. Too Good. He whooped Max’s ass at everything they played. The rest of the family filtered through the room, picking up the other two controllers and playing a few matches before talking with each other. Ray effortlessly spoke with them while still playing. Max lost track of what they were saying until David insisted they pause the game.

“Come on Max!” he said as Max glared at him, “You should get to know your family!”

“We have plenty of time to play before you’ve got to leave,” Ray said, ruffling Max’s hair and smoothly snatching the controller form his hands. “We’d like to know about you too.”

Max pouted, hands still gripping an invisible controller. “It’ll be fun, Max!” David said, patting his back.

“Yeah sure, whatever Dad-avid!” Max blurted out, cringing when David’s eyes went wide and his smile slowly grew. James and Rosa started to snicker as Max tried to backpedal, again. This wasn’t the first time he had called David dad. Probably wouldn’t be the last, especially if David was officially his guardian like the rest of the family was implying.

David swallowed the lump in his throat, wiped the tear from his eye before taking a deep breath. “Well, Max, tell us about yourself!”

Max scowled, glancing at the rest of the Haywood’s. They were all staring at him expectantly and his tongue felt like lead. David caught onto his shrinking quickly and waved his hand where Max couldn’t see it.

“So, what do you like to do, other than game?” Ray said quickly as Rosa and Louis looked at each other and Ryan pulled out a knife to inspect. James just grinned at Max when he shot David a suspicious glare.

“Max has gotten very good at sewing and knitting!” David said proudly, pointedly ignoring the glare. “And he’s quite the escape artist.”

“Oh, that’s marketable in our business,” James said, sitting up slightly as Max just awkwardly shrugged.

“What? The stupid knitting or the escaping?” Max snorted, frown when James chuckled.

“Both,” James said, folding his hands behind his head and crossing his legs. “Do you have any idea how many bullet holes I’ve had to patch in my favorite shirts?”

“I’ve always like knitted clothes,” Louis said suddenly, tapping his nose with his finger. “I’ve always wanted to make a small line of clothes that were knitted.”

“Ponchos,” Max said without thinking, “They’re comfy and warm.”

Louis’s eyes lit up and he scrambled for a piece of paper that was crumpled up in his pocket. Max shrunk as he frantically started to write with a small golf pencil. “That’s a great idea!”

“And we’ve lost him,” Rosa sighed fondly, shaking aer head as Louis began to sketch, “Good job though, Max, he’s been in a slump.”

Max wasn’t really sure what to say. He just answered what he could find a reasonable answer to. After the incident in the car, they were careful to pry certain information out of him and quickly figured out when to stop pushing. David was in a constant state of pride as he bragged about everything Max achieved in camp, including the almost disastrous activity day Max lead.

He wasn’t stupid, he noticed when Ray and Ryan started sharing glances whenever he mentioned liking something, but they never pushed to know more. For some reason, he felt better and better the longer they talked. Felt more at home than he had in his entire life.

When they were finally fed for lunch, Ryan cooked and Ray helped where he could. They ate together. At a dining table. No TV, no phones, just food and each other. It was really weird. Max was used to fending for himself then eating in his room with whatever he could find on his phone to entertain himself.

Then, as they finished up eating, David asked James what the best gaming laptop he could get that would also be good for school work. Max was confused as to why he would even ask that until Rosa asked him if he even liked computer games.

“I get my own computer?” Max said instead of answering. Everyone paused for half a second before continuing on.

“Of course!” David said, smiling blindingly at Max, “And since you seem to really like games, something that could handle both gaming and school work would be best!”

Max stared at David like he had grown four heads since he started speaking. “I will get nothing done,” he said in a monotone.

“If it becomes a problem we’ll strike a deal,” David said without hesitation.

“I’m stubborn,” Max countered, feeling something bubble in his stomach, but he had no name for the feeling.

“You’re smart,” David said simple, giving Max a fond smile. “You’ll probably be able to do your homework in school just so you don’t have to do it later.”

Max had no response to that since it was exactly what he did. He stared at his plate as James quickly told David some suggestions. Now that he was thinking about it, that sandwich they gave him had healthy shit on it but he ate it without complaint, too busy listening to everyone talk and ask him things, listening when he spoke.

A gently hand tapped his shoulder and he jumped, looking up at Ray with wide eyes. “You okay?” he said, smiling and tilting his head to the side.

“Uh,” Max shot a glances at the rest of the table. They weren’t staring, good. “Whatever.”

Ray chuckled and nodded, ruffling his hair before turning to Louis and asking him some questions about whatever it was he was still drawing. Max blinked at them before looking down at his plate for a moment. Occasionally someone would ask him if he was alright. David barely got the words out before Max was already answering the worry on his face. Otherwise, he was allowed to sit and process where he was and what was happening.

After lunch they dispersed to computers, books, and short conversations. Ray picked up gaming again and before Max could join, David whipped out a computer he didn’t even think he was capable of owning.

“Alright Max! We’re going to look up some things to get when we get home!” David said cheerfully, never once asking what Max wanted, just scrolled through lists of furniture, bedding, and decorations until Max wanted him to stop and look at something. Everything was opened into its own tab and left open.

“How many fucking tabs do you have open?” Max snorted as David flipped through multiple windows. There were also about a thousand spreadsheets also open.

“As many as I need,” David said happily, opening up a spreadsheet covered in numbers.

“That’s really not good for your computer,” James said without looking up from his own computer. He was rapid fire typing at his keyboard.

“Hey Max,” Louis said as James and David started vaguely arguing over their heads, “Do you think you’d wear something like this?”

Max instantly scowled at the drawing of a poncho Louis showed him. It had a high collar and giant buttons. “Fuck no,” he sneered, frowning when Louis pouted.

“Yeah, I figured,” Louis sighed, drawing an x through the drawing, “Have you ever made a poncho before?”

Once. It didn’t make it home. “No,” Max said, rolling his eyes when Louis started drawing another horrible poncho with a high collar, “Oh for fuck’s sake...”

Snatching the pencil and paper, Max drew a crude drawing of the poncho he had made two summers ago. “Something like that, asshole,” he muttered, shoving the paper back into Louis’s hands.

Louis started at the drawing for a moment before beaming at Max. “Thanks Max!” he said, sitting next to Max and drawing on his leg so Max can see, “How’s that?”

By the time David was leading him to the room they were staying in, he realized two things. One was that every single one of them were taking notes of the things he liked and second that they actually wanted to hear what he had to say. He fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow, emotionally drained. He barely heard himself tell David good night.

The next morning, he was woken early by the smell of breakfast and David trying to be quiet as he got ready for the day. They had one more day at the farm house before they took their stolen plane to Los Santos to meet up with the rest of the family.

Knitting supplies and a fucking nice sewing kit had magically appeared on the coffee table. Max stared at them for about five minutes before David crouched down and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. “They’re for you,” he said softly. “Dad insisted. He wanted to make sure you had something to do.”

Max didn’t look away from the needles sticking out of flame colored ball of yarn. There was also a blue ball and a few smaller balls of various colors. The sewing supplies were in a white box which was open to show the spools of thread and a tomato full of needles. He wanted to reach out and take them, but what if they just disappeared, right from under his fingers? What if it was a lie? What if they wanted something from him in return?

“Max? It’s a gift. We don’t want anything from you,” David said and Max wondered if he said all of that out loud.

Hesitantly, Max reached out and snatched up the yarn, shooting David a wary look. He just smiled back and squeezed his shoulder before standing and heading for the kitchen. Breakfast, like the other meals, was spent at the dining room table, but no one complained when Max brought his needles and yarn and knit between bites of bacon and eggs.

By dinner, new games for his DS and a few new shirts and pants appeared on the coffee table. It took him a few hours to touch each new gift. No one said anything, just let him process what was happening. They weren’t taken away, he wasn’t yelled at, and nothing was asked of him. Didn’t mean it might still come, but for the moment, he felt happy.

The next day they were up before the sun. David ended up carrying Max to the plane, his suitcase and a small bag of his gifts in tow. He slept most of the ride, woken again by the plane touching down. This time there was a tarmac outside the window and a helicopter waiting for them this time.

Jack, the infamous pilot of the Fakes was waiting for them with Geoff motherfucking Ramsey.

“Who’s the kid?” Geoff said, raising an eyebrow as he looked down at Max.

“Uncle Geoff, this is Max!” David said, pushing Max forward slightly. He tried to dig his heels into the ground.

Geoff crouched then smiled. “Nice to meet you,” he said, offering Max his hand with a lazy smile.

Max took Geoff’s hand in a firm shake and then looked up at David, starstruck when Geoff stood and turned to Ray and Ryan. David smiled back and ushered Max into the helicopter, introducing him to Jack as well.

Thankfully, most of the crew was working when they arrived to the old penthouse that used to serve as the Fake’s headquarters. A brand new gaming computer with a massive screen was waiting for Max when they arrived, sitting on the coffee table in front of Michael ‘Mogar’ Jones and the Golden Boy, Gavin Free. Max, like at the farmhouse, avoided the computer. Michael tried, after being introduced to Max, to get him to take the computer, but Ryan was quick to stop him.

Gavin was loud and annoying, more so than Camp David. Max spat insults at him and lashed out when he got too close, but Gavin barely seemed bothered. He slowly realized his limits with Max. Michael was faster on the uptake. For about ten minutes, Max and Michael spat insults at each other like it was a foreign language only they understood.

“You’re okay,” Max decided after a five minute glare. Michael cracked a smile and roughly messed up Max’s hair.

While the adults caught up, Max pulled out his knitting and barely listened until someone turned on the Xbox and passed him a controller. He and Michael ended up cussing each other out, much to David’s horror, which just made them both want to do it more.

In the middle of an intense game of Mario Kart, the front door open and Max was startled as everyone but David and Louis pulled guns. David had Max in his arms in seconds, crouching beside Louis near the table. Max stayed tense, clinging to David as everyone calmed.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Michael spat, stuffing his gun back into his holster and standing. “What the fuck have I told you about just walking in here?”

“Sorry Dad,” someone snorted, the door slamming behind them. “Didn’t think Uncle Ray and Ryan were here already.”

“Marlis!” David gasped, standing up suddenly, Max still in his arms.

“Davy?” A guy in a black beanie with curly hair and a heavy hoodie said before smiling brightly. “Holy shit!”

David laughed as the man hugged him, just then noticing Max. “Who the fuck are you?” Marlis said, narrowing his eyes at Max.

“Who the fuck are you?” Max spat back, glaring as he tightened his hold on David’s shirt.

They glared at each other before Marlis suddenly smiled. “Wait, you’re Max?” he said, grinning brighter when David nodded since Max refused to move. “Shit, Davy’s told us about what you’ve done, you’ve gotta teach me your ways.”

Max’s entire thought process was thrown off as Marlis gave him an excited look. “What?”

“You know, teach me how to fuck with Davy,” Marlis said, laughing when David pouted at him. “He’s got way too much fucking patience.” He suddenly gasped and leaned closer. “Didn’t you get him to curse or something? I’ve been trying to do that for ages!”

Max blinked slowly at Marlis before smirking up at David and wiggling in his arms. “Oh gosh,” David said as he set Max down and he and Marlis sat on the floor, speaking in harsh whispers, “That’s not going to end well.”

“Oh hell no,” Ray laughed, patting his son’s back, “God fucking speed.”

David pouted at his fathers, both of whom were laughing. “I’ve got your back!” Louis called over the rising noise of everyone talking.

“Thank you!” David called back, giving Louis an air high-five. Rosa rolled aer eyes at them, turning back toward the TV, restarting the game.

Marlis wasn’t an idiot, but he also was as clumsy as Gavin when it came to pranking people. Adding the ideas of a ten year old on top of that didn’t make him any better at it. They did managed to scare a screech out of David a few times, but nothing too terrible. Their failed pranks did leave Max exhausted by the end of the day. Not an hour after diner had passed and both Max and Marlis were fast asleep on the couch.

David smiled fondly at them, scooping Max up carefully while Michael draped a blanket over his son. They shared nods before David carted Max off to the room they were sharing. With the extra hours, Max woke up at the same time as David and begrudgingly helped make breakfast. Well, he read the instructions on the pancake box mix incorrectly but David managed regardless.

“The ladies and Jeremy are coming today,” Ryan said when he shuffled into the room thirty minutes after they had started breakfast.

“How’s Uncle Jeremy?” David said, glancing over his shoulder as Ryan snitching the box from Max, ruffling his hair to distract him.

“He’s thinking of joining Ray and I at the farm,” Ryan said as he glanced over the instructions and rolled his eyes. “You’re lucky David actually knows how to cook.”

“Shut up,” Max grumbled, kicking his legs from where he was sitting on the counter next to Ryan.

David smiled down at the sizzling pan, leaving the pancakes alone to push around the bacon and sausage for a moment. “You’re going to be out-numbered.”

“Oh, no doubt. Neither of them can sit still very well,” Ryan sighed, smiling as Max started playing on his phone, “They’ll convince each other to go on that last heist about twenty times and drag me along for the ride.”

“Like you’re not looking forward to it,” Max snorted before David could even suggest the same.

Ryan laughed and ruffled Max’s hair again. “You’re not wrong,” he said before looking back at David. “You were right, he does fit in well.”

David shook his head, smiling as giddy bubbles boiled in his stomach. He couldn’t hold back a wide smile as he placed more pancakes onto the waiting plate. “When will they get here?”

“Probably after breakfast, so make more than normal,” Ryan said, gently pushing the box towards David, “They probably won’t eat before getting here.”

David nodded and grabbed the box without looking. A thought hit him and he frowned. “When’s Trevor coming?”

“Not today, he’s too busy training some of the new meat,” Ryan said watching David as his shoulders tensed. He could see Max also watching out of the corner of his eye. “I can tell him not to bother asking anymore.”

“He’ll probably do it anyway,” David laughed awkwardly, trying to relax. “He just wants someone who knows what they’re doing.”

“Wait!” Max said, nearly dropping his phone. “He wants _you_ to join the crew? Why the fuck don’t you?”

David winced and spared a glance at Ryan, who just shrugged and waved him on. Scowling, he turned back to the stove and sighed. “I-uh. I don’t have the heart to do it,” he said, smiling sheepishly at Max. “I did try once though.”

Max’s jaw dropped and Ryan just managed to catch his phone before it clattered to the ground. “He’ll probably ask you to give some of the newbies a tutorial,” Ryan said, setting Max’s phone down next to him. “They don’t even know how to dispose of a body properly and you’re the best teacher out of all of us.”

David wrinkled his nose, pulling the meat off of the burner before turning to the bowl he had used to mix the first batch of pancakes. 

“How the fuck do they get into this business and not know shit like that?” James said, appearing from the hallway and sitting on the other side of Max, who still looked shell shocked.

“Wait, what the fuck did you do?!” Max nearly shouted, leaning forward as David cringed again.

James and Ryan shared glances when David didn’t say anything for a moment. “He wasn’t good at aiming,” James said slowly, smiling slightly when David sighed. “Not bad at knives although he tensed up once in a fight.”

“All of those camping trips did mean he was damn good at tying knots and finding the most secluded locations,” Ryan said idly, chuckling when Max looked up at them with big eyes.

“I was the cleanup guy,” David croaked, refusing to turn around.

“Holy. Fuck,” Max breathed, falling back to lay on the counter and stare at the ceiling, arms spread out at his sides.

James and Ryan chuckled but kept quiet. David bit his lip and braced himself for more questions. He wasn’t proud of the shit he had done. Thankfully, the others woke up, preventing Max from asking anything more.

As Ryan predicted, Jeremy, Meg, Lindsay, Mica, Kidn, and Stef all came right after breakfast and demanded to be fed. James and Rosa teased Ray after he nearly tackled Jeremy in a hug. Max was vaguely confused until David quietly explained that Jeremy and his dads were more or less together.

“Wait, so I have three grandparents?” Max said, ignoring the glowing look David gave him.

Sniffing, and wiping a few tears away. “Yep!” David said happily.

Max was quiet for a moment, watching Jeremy be smushed between Ray and Ryan. “Cool,” he said, grinning a bit.

Jeremy was a little awkward trying to deal with him but he nearly cried when Max called him his grandfather. “Jeremy and David really got along when we were younger,” James whispered to Max when the two of them started chattering about camp. “He was the only one of us willing to go camping with him.”

Max snorted, watching them talk. They were both way too fucking happy but hey, that meant Jeremy would be that easy to guilt trip grandparent. Ray and Ryan had already both seen through him.

While all of Max’s new aunts cooed over him, beside the computer he still refused to touch appeared a box of knives and a small crossbow. David glared at Geoff and Jack when he saw them but they both pointed at Jeremy who smiled sheepishly. “Ray and Ryan told me about him coming and I know you still get trouble. He’s going to have to learn something.”

“But a crossbow?” David groaned, pouting slightly. “He already tried to kill me at camp.”

“Ah, in our family that means we just like you,” Geoff laughed, slapping David’s back roughly. “You’re a tough kid. You’ll live.”

David puffed a laugh, smiling tiredly when Jeremy just shrugged at him. “Thanks, I suppose.”

“No problem kiddo,” Jeremy said, pulling David into a one armed hug before heading back into the kitchen to save Max from Meg and Lindsey insisting on getting him clothes. He scooped him up and placed him on his shoulder. “Sorry ladies, we’ve got cool shit to do,” he said putting sunglasses on before holding up a pair for Max.

“Uh, yeah!” Max laughed, putting the sunglasses on and keeping them from sliding off of his face with his finger.

They laughed as Jeremy ran around the apartment with Max on his shoulders. David watched with a fond smile, dropping tiredly into his seat as his aunts turned all of their attention on him.

When Max finally saw the new gifts the aunts had all left, leaving Jeremy to stay with Ray and Ryan. He stared at them before giving David a confused look. With a heavy sigh, David sat beside Max and picked up the crossbow. It was small and would fit against Max’s shoulder comfortably. There were extra gears to make pulling back easier.

“I haven’t been in the business for some time,” David said slowly, easily pulling the string back to the latch. “But since most of the family has stayed, sometimes sh-stuff happens.”

Max narrowed his eyes as David loaded an arrow into the shaft and raised it, looking down the sight. “Are you going to teach me how to kill people?”

“Or at least how to get away,” David said, nodding once. “Uncle Jeremy thought these would suit you the best.”

Max’s eyes widened as David pulled the trigger and the arrow went nearly all the way through the wall. “Holy fuck,” he gasped as the crossbow was set down and David picked up the dark wooden box. Inside was a set of black blades that were the size of Max’s forearm. There were switchblades, pocket knives, throwing knives, and just a general hunting knife.

“A couple of years ago, James messed up and some people went after Rosa and Louis,” David said softly, setting the box down between them and pulling out the switch blade. “Dad and Papa did everything they could to erase them from the business but they still ended up finding them, so there’s always a chance something could happen.”      

Max blinked as David effortlessly flipped the knife around his hand. For the first time since meeting him, David looked genuinely sad, as if there was no way to make a positive out of the situation. Some part of him felt gratified that David was a fucking miserable human being like the rest of them but the rest of him was unsettled.

Sitting down slowly, he leaned against David’s side and picked up the hunting knife. “So I get to learn how to use this shit?” he said, grinning when David nodded, “Fucking awesome.”

David laughed and gave Max that obnoxious smile of his and Max felt himself settle into the familiarity of happy-go-lucky David.

He took the crossbow and knives pretty quickly, leaving the computer untouched. David said nothing other than to promise to start teaching him as soon as they got home. However, as most of the adults floated around, doing their own things, Max eventually caved and hesitantly took the computer and set it up.

“Hey David,” Max sneered once he had the computer exactly as he wanted it, “buy me games.”

David blinked down at Max, setting his book down and smiling slowly. “I will get you, not one, not three but two games!” he said cheerfully, chuckling when Max groaned at him.

“Fine, Minecraft and Overwatch,” Max said, pouting when David made a face. “What?”

“Isn’t Overwatch a shooting game?” David said, looking over at James who was cleaning his knives.

“It censors cursing and there’s no blood,” James said without looking up. “And it’s got a diverse cast and queer people.”

“Oh, alrighty then!” David said cheerfully, pulling out his wallet.

Max honestly didn’t think that would work. He felt a bit numb when David read the numbers to him instead of just taking the computer to type them in. His fingers shook as he opened up Overwatch and James gave him pointers while David watched, wincing every time someone’s dead body ragdolled.

At some point, someone gave him an HTMI cord and everyone sat around watching him and anyone else who had the game playing on the screen. Max found himself laughing and smiling more than he had in years and David didn’t say a fucking thing to ruin it, like pointing it out.

Instead, once David insisted he should go to bed, he just ruffled his hair. “I might have to leave for a bit tomorrow,” he said in the doorway to the room. Max grunted, half asleep. “Will you be alright with just Louis and Papa tomorrow?”

Max took about thirty seconds to remember that Ray was Papa before nodding and rolling over to finally go to sleep. When he woke up in the morning, breakfast was being made by Jeremy and Ryan and a few new people were hovering around David.

“Come on Davy,” one of the men said, poking David’s shoulder. “We could really use you.”

“He’s got a kid now Trevor,” Geoff said, throwing a balled up piece of paper at the man. “Let it go. Also, your heist idea is shit.”

“Oh, like yours are any better,” Trevor snorted, just managing to catch the paper and tossing it in the trashcan. Max flinched when he saw him, grinning brightly. “Hey! You’re David’s kid, right? Do you want to join the crew?”

“No!” David said quickly, glaring at Trevor. “He’s ten!”

“Rosa was ten when ae killed someone for the first time,” Trevor snorted, wincing when something wet smacked him in the back. Ryan was frowning at him, the spoon he was using to pour waffle batter into the waffle maker in hand.

“No,” Ryan said simply, turning around and continuing what he was doing. Jeremy was shaking his head.

“I was joking! Jeeze,” Trevor muttered, trying to twist around to look at the batter on his back.

Max edged over to David who smiled tiredly at him and picked him up to set him on the counter. “That’s Trevor,” he said, pointing to the man trying to get his shirt off without making more of a mess, “He’s the new leader of the Fakes.”

“I’m Matt,” the man on David’s other side said, brushing long hair from his face, “Those other shits,” he waved vaguely at the men and women behind them, “are the newer members of the crew.”

Max narrowed his eyes and nodded, sticking close to David. He talked a lot of shit, but something in his stomach twisted with the thought of actually joining a violent crew. “Anyway,” David said, smiling down at Max, “after breakfast I’ll be out with them and most of the rest of the family. Are you sure you’re okay staying here with Papa and Louis?”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever,” Max said, folding his arms and huffing.

David chuckled and squeezed his shoulder. Max wasn’t sure if David was just reading him really well or if he was actually a terrible actor.

David tried to hug him goodbye after breakfast, but was basically dragged out of the apartment by Trevor and Jeremy. The apartment nearly echoed as Louis drew more designs for knitted ponchos and Ray started up a game on the x-box.

After an entire summer and almost another week surrounded by a massive amount of people, the quiet made his ears ring. Slowly, he sat next to Ray and watched him play, shaking his head when a controller was offered to him. Not having David there was even weirder. Uncertainty curled in his stomach the longer no one said anything. He hadn’t felt that anxious since getting to camp and seeing David’s stupid face.

“How the fuck did you end up with him?” Max said eventually, unable to take the high pitched ringing in his ears anymore.

“Who?” Ray said, eyes flickering over the screen, “Louis? I don’t know but Rosa seems to like him.”

“Ha ha,” Louis snorted, sharing a short smile with Ray.

“No, David,” Max said, shifting to look up at Ray, “He’s like-the fucking opposite of all of you.”

Ray paused the game and pursed his lips while Louis buried his nose in his drawings, watching them over the top of his paper. “Actually, the first time I met him he threatened to dig my eye out with a spoon.”

There was silence for a moment before Max broke out laughing. “Holy-shit…that’s fucking hilarious! What really hap-happened?” he puffed out between laughs.

Ray smiled and placed his hand on Max’s shoulder. “That is what happened,” he said gently, shaking his head when Max stopped laughing and narrowed his eyes at him, “You see, when Rosa was a sophomore and James was a senior in high school, this new kid showed up halfway through the year. He was bullied, he had no friends, and he had a terrible attitude.

“One day, during lunch, Rosa was close to a fight breaking out between that kid and his bullies. Ae stepped in, kicked the assholes asses and made the poor kid sit with ae and aer brother, then they made the poor kid come home with them,” Ray paused, smiling to himself, eyes glassing over. Max noticed for the first time that little gray hairs were starting to appear just under Ray’s black strands. “Ryan and I took one look at his kid, covered in bruises and scrapes and rushed to get our first aid kit but he wouldn’t even let us touch him. When I tried to anyway, he grabbed the nearest object, which was a spoon, and threatened to dig my eye out with it.”

Max shifted uncomfortable and Ray looked down at him, squeezing his shoulder. “Eventually, the more the kid visited, the less he lashed out at us. Before the end of the year, I had to ask David why he was sleeping over at our house every day and he admitted that he was afraid to go back to his foster home.”

Max flinched, but Ray kept going, staring vacantly at the ground. “Ryan wanted to go out and adopt him right there in then but I insisted on asking if he wanted to even be adopted by us. He said he did and that was that. We used what connections we had to get the paperwork pushed through. We got him new clothes, a computer, a phone, anything a kid would need. And every new gift would sit on the coffee table for about three days until he took it.”

Ray shot Max a pointed look that he pointedly ignored, frowning down at his new computer. “When he learned we weren’t going to take anything away from him, he loosened up. When we taught him how to protect himself, he admitted to us he hated how he acted so we told him to just be however he wanted. He stopped cursing eventually and stopped going on smaller missions but agreed to clean up whatever messes were left behind and he was good at it.

“Eventually, he gathered up the courage to ask us if he could go to this tiny, shitty camp and be a counselor.” Ray wrinkled his nose and he shook his head. “We knew Campbell, he owed us some shit as we pulled our strings and got him the job easily. But, you know, we had to ask. Turns out, that shitty camp was the only place he felt sane. It was also the place where one foster family would send him just for another to pick him up.”

Max realized he was hugging himself when his fingers curled into his hoodie. A faint memory of the sad smile David gave him the first year when his parents were late. Then came the quiet. The two of them just sitting, enjoying the peace, waiting to see who would be coming.

“Jeremy volunteered to go with him just in case anything happened,” Ray said, startling Max out of the memory. “Turned out that he actually liked camping and he took David all the time. Eventually David went to college to become a teacher and then settled down close to that shitty camp so he could teach at the local school and still be a consoler.”

There was silence as Ray smiled fondly off into space and Max processed the story. Louis glanced between them nervously, frowning when Max finally looked up. “So he likes being an obnoxious optimist?”

Ray choked on a laugh and nodded, ruffling Max’s hair. “Yes, he does. I think it helps him get through the day.”

Max snorted but said no more. Eventually Ray picked up his game again and they sat in silence until the others returned.

“Max? Are you okay?” David said, not usually one to look a gift horse in the mouth but Max was hugging him.

“Fucking fine,” he mumbled into David’s shoulder, relaxing as he was hugged back. “Did you teach those idiots how to properly be a criminal?”

“It was a lot easier than you’d think,” David chuckled, standing with Max in his arms and moving away from the door. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m hugging you David, fucking enjoy it while you can,” Max said, giving David a glare before relaxing against him again.

David blinked blankly before laughing and squeezing Max tightly. Max pushed his face away eventually but it was the thought that mattered.

They had to leave by the end of the week so Max would have time to relax before school began. He didn’t want to leave and David didn’t seem to want to either, but they had to. Legally purchased plane tickets were waiting to be used.

The entire crew saw them off, hugging them both tightly. Most of the family promised to visit when they could. The silence returned when they finally separated from the mass of murderers, but the anxiety didn’t rise much in Max’s stomach this time.

When they arrived home, it was to boxes of the furniture, bedding, and decorations that were still up in tabs on David’s computer. Max shot David an accusing look but David just grinned and pushed the boxes into the apartment. “It’ll be fun Max! A good bonding experience!”

“Why didn’t you just pay them to build it for us?” Max sneered as they sat in the empty spare room that was to be his room.

David was silent for a moment as he used a large hunting knife to cut into one of the boxes. “Honestly? They didn’t offer the service,” he said, smiling sheepishly.

Max blinked at David before laughing and holding his hands out for the directions. Like with the pancakes, Max was tempted to read the directions wrong but they were already so confusing that reading them out of order actually made more sense than reading them in order. By the time they were hungry enough for diner, everything had been built and they were hanging posters and making the bed.

Max expected David to want to make something like they had at the reunion but instead he asked what Max wanted on his pizza and just ordered out. Max wasn’t about to complain so he said nothing.

That night, his room complete, his things unpacked, and plans to get school supplies set for tomorrow, he laid in his surprisingly comfortable bed that felt almost too big for him and stared at the ceiling. They couldn’t paint the walls, but he could put anything he wanted on them.

School would suck since he’d be the new kid, but David had hinted that either Nikki or Neil might be within the school district. Thankfully, he was going into middle school which meant he wouldn’t have to put up with David being a teacher in the same building as him. Closing his eyes, Max let himself fall asleep with a smile.

* * *

 

“Dad, seriously?” Max groaned as he dragged his duffle behind him.

David sniffed, always looking like he was going to cry when Max called him Dad although he did it all of the time now. “What’s the matter Max?”

“Do we seriously have to come to camp a fucking week early?” Max groaned, glaring at the stupid Camp Campbell flag, “And on my birthday? Couldn’t we have come tomorrow?”

“What, and miss the party?”

The new voice startled Max. David grinned as Max turned and saw James and Rosa heading their way, large, wrapped gifts in their arms. “Uncle James! Zizi Rosa!” Max shouted, barreling right into their legs.

They both laughed and ruffled Max’s hair. They hadn’t seen him since Christmas when the entire crew flew down to spend the holiday in their small apartment. David’s smile grew as he walked over and spied Louis carting another large present.

“Where’s our parents?” David asked James as Rosa knelt to hug Max and tickle him.

“On their way, you know how Ryan and Jeremy get when neither of them are allowed to drive,” James snorted, chuckling along with David.

“Who else is coming?” Max said, nearly bouncing as he eyes his gifts.

“Just your grandparents,” Rosa said, before nodding back to Louis who had disappeared again. “But everyone sent their gifts with us.”

Max’s eyes went wide and his smile turned crooked and David sighed. “They’re going to spoil him,” he mumbled.

“To be fair,” James said, leaning over to whisper to David, “I think most of it is either clothes or weapons.”

“I don’t think that’s better,” David said, smiling sheepishly while James laughed, “How about you and sib take him to the mess hall for the other surprise, I’ll help Louis.”

James nodded and cleared his throat. “Alright, kid. Let’s get this shit to the mess hall,” he said, nudging Max towards his duffle.

Max rushed over and continued to drag the bag while talking with Rosa and James. David smiled after them before turning to find Louis and the no doubt packed car of presents.

James and Rosa pushed the doors to the mess hall open to a fairly well decorated dining room. A cake and most of Max’s other favorite foods were waiting on a table that had both Nikki and Neil waiting for him in front of it.

“Hey Max! Nikki shouted, darting forward and tackling him in a hug.

“Hey buddy,” Neil said as he came over, giving Rosa and James suspicious looks, “What did you say your family does again?”

Max laughed and smirked at Neil, taking him by the shoulders while Nikki still clung to him. Neil was in his school district but Nikki was not. “You won’t believe me until you see it.”

Neil gave him a worried look but didn’t have time to question him as David and Louis, red in the face, walked in with piles of presents in their arms. “Did everyone get him something?”

“Yes,” Louis puffed, setting the gifts on one of the back tables, “We didn’t steal a plane, before you even ask.”

David laughed as Neil paled and shot Max a panicked look. Max just grinned and assured Nikki that yes, Louis was not joking. “That’s so cool!” Nikki said, throwing her arms up before looking over at Rosa, “Also, your aunt is super cool.”

“That’s my Zizi, and ae’s married. God you’re gay,” Max snorted, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his shorts. He didn’t wear his hoodie as much anymore, especially when the weather got warmer.

“Like you’re one to talk,” Nikki scoffed, shooting looks between Neil and Max with a smirk.

“Nikki!” the boys shouted together, feeling heat in their cheeks.

“Max!”

All three kids turned to look at the new voice. Ray and Ryan were heading their way with giant smiles, Jeremy lagging behind to help Louis carry a heavier gift. “Grandparents!” Max said, running over and letting Ryan pick him up and settle him on his shoulders.

Neil and Nikki shared glances before watching Max talk animatedly to both men. “How many family members does Max even have now?” Neil said, jumping when David appeared from nowhere behind them.

“Too many to count!” David laughed, ruffling both of their hairs and just managing to avoid Nikki biting his hand. “Dad! Papa! Glad you could come.”

“You kidding?” Ray said as Jeremy took Max from Ryan and hugged him tightly. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Max didn’t cry the entire day. He did not. Not even one tear. He felt like he wanted to. It felt like people, a lot of people, really cared. 

True to his extended family, he got a lot of bullet proof objects and weapons that fit in his small hands. Neil looked more and more freaked out the more he learned while Nikki looked like she was in love with the very idea of Max’s family.

All of them were staying for the week leading up to camp to help set up and relax. Jeremy and David ended up teaching all of the adults how to pitch tents while Max showed Neil and Nikki some of the paths and survival skills he had to gain from how much David liked to camp.

“I can’t believe you have such a cool family. Wanna trade?” Nikki said as they walked an old forgotten path.

“Fuck no,” Max snorted, shaking his head and waving a stick in front of him to break spider webs. He wasn’t afraid of spiders. He wasn’t.

“I can’t believe _David’s_ family is a bunch of murderers,” Neil muttered, wincing when Max tossed a spider to Nikki who happily ate it. “How did that even happen?”

“Dumb luck,” Max said without skipping a beat. “He’s not actually that bad. Turns out he’s human under all of that happy.”

“Pfft, nah,” Nikki said, waving her hand dismissively. “There’s no way.”

“Oh, but there is,” Max said, slowly smirking. “You remember that prank Neil and I pulled off on the principal?”

“Uh, yeah?” Nikki said, narrowing her eyes as Max snickered.

“It was David’s idea,” Neil said, smiling a bit himself. “He just sort of, gave us the idea and then the supplies to do it appeared after we planned everything out.”

Nikki’s jaw dropped before she began to cackle, nearly falling to the ground. “Oh my god, that’s awesome!”

Max grinned and looked ahead of them again. “Okay, so, David showed me this path like, in the dead of winter, but it’s really cool,” he said as he pushed a bush aside.

Neil and Nikki both froze, eyes widening as they started past the bushes. “Are-are those hot springs?”

“Hell yeah they are,” Max grinned, heading for the nearest pool, “David found them when he was a camper here and never told anyone.”

“Oh my god, I’m spending all my time here,” Neil pushed out in a rush, scurrying over to the water and sticking his hand into the pool.

“Ew, water,” Nikki wrinkled her nose, folding her arms.

“There’s hot mud too,” Max said, smirking when Nikki gasped and raced around, looking for a mud puddle to jump into.

As the three of them relaxed in the warm water and mud, Nikki suddenly sat up. “I guess David’s not a bad parent then?”

Max paused long enough for Neil to crack and eye open and study him. “Yeah, he’s-he’s actually pretty great,” he said slowly before glaring at his friends, “But if you ever fucking tell him that, I’m giving you a bath,” he pointed at Nikki who gasped and gathered up some mud to hug. “And I’m making sure what little science shit you have here gets destroyed.” He pointed at Neil who gasped louder than Nikki.

Max smirked as they both began to complain, sinking into the water and sighing in relief. 


End file.
